The Beauty and the Botanist
by Miragee
Summary: Since their first day of school, Hannah has always been kind to Neville when few others have. As his feelings start to grow, along with their friendship, he tries to push them away only to find he can't hide the truth forever. M rating just to be safe
1. Loose Toad on the Train

_So for anyone who has been following me these past couple of years (as I have deleted and rewritten and then deleted a TON of stories) Neville is my absolute FAVORITE character in the HP series. And when I found out that he did not die alone, as I first imagined after reading DH, but actually married Hannah Abbott, I immediately wanted to write a story about the two of them, from start to finish, and after two years or so that is finally a reality :D I'll admit I'm a bit of a lazy bum but I'll try and get on and update as much as I possibly can (cause this little thing called college can make life a living hell sometimes)._

_Rating is simply for safety. Language will be present throughout the whole thing--and when we actually get to the dirty parts they won't be TOO bad. I promise._

_Disclaimer: JK owns the HP world, and I do not. Any dialogue from the book that I fit into the story was written __**BY JK**__ and did __**not **__come out of __**MY**__ own head._

* * *

"No, we haven't seen your toad!"

Neville Longbottom sighed as the door was slammed shut in his face. He knew he was a first year, and he could already tell by just looking at the other first years that he didn't belong, but was it too much to ask for them to help him find his toad? It was the only pet that his grandmother had ever let him have; she was worried he wasn't able to take care of anything by himself.

Judging by his current situation, she had been completely right.

He sighed to himself and knocked on the door of the next compartment. With every visit to a new carriage, he could feel his hope and confidence draining. If no one had seen Trevor by now, he was most likely a goner. The poor little toad had probably been left behind on the platform, alone and scared. He quickly opened the door and slipped in, glancing at his feet as he spoke. "Erm, excuse me, have you see a toad?" he asked.

There were three people in the carriage--there was a blond boy sitting next to the window who was sitting up abnormally straight...across from him was a red-headed girl, and few feet away from her on the seat sat a little blonde girl with long pigtails on either side of her head. They seemed to be about his age--how did all these first years know each other already? It was maddening!

"No, sorry...but we'll be sure to let you know if we see one!" the blonde girl assured him. Well, she seemed nice. Nicer than the other people had been to him earlier.

"Oh, ok...thanks," he said, blushing and stumbling out of the door before closing it quickly behind him.

He stopped and took a deep breath. So far, he was making an AWFUL first impression on his fellow peers. The compartment he went to next had only two people in it--a black haired boy with glasses and his red-headed friend. They seemed alright--better than the awful blond boy he had run into earlier. Him and his two burly friends had threatened to curse him if he didn't leave them alone.

The next compartment had only one girl in it. She had very bushy hair and was reading a book while flicking her wand about. She looked to be about first year, just like him. To Neville's astonishment, some sparks were actually coming out of her wand. She was probably a good three lessons ahead of everyone else around! Feeling himself frown with jealousy, he remembered that he was on a mission. He needed to find his toad before he got stepped on!

He knocked and walked in to her compartment. "Sorry to bother you, but have you see a toad?" he asked.

"No, have you lost one?" the girl asked. She spoke rather quickly and he saw that she had abnormally large front teeth. Scary.

"Well, he got away from me…"

"I'll help you look!" the girl exclaimed. She ran up and grabbed his wrist as she pulled him out into the hall. Unsure of what to do, his eyes widened and he allowed himself to be pulled out into the hallway.

"Oh!" she stopped suddenly and whipped around. "My name is Hermione Granger, by the way. What's yours?"

This took Neville so completely by surprise that he didn't answer at once. "Um…I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Great," Hermione said, and with a smile dragged him to the compartment next to hers.

"I've already been…" Neville began, but she didn't seem to be listening as she barged right into the compartment.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Hermione said at once. Her voice didn't sound cheerful anymore, but demanding and bossy. He didn't like the way she had just sucked the words out of his mouth either. Way to make him look even MORE helpless than he already was.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it." The red haired boy said. Hermione ignored him and looked only at the wand he was holding. It was very shabby, much like Neville's wand. His had been his father's before the accident and his Gran insisted on giving it to him. She was hoping that it would possess some of his old spellwork. Merlin knew he needed the extra help.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see, then." She demanded.

She plopped down in the seats across from the two boys, folding her hands in her lap and waiting patiently.

"Er-all right…"

He cleared his throat.

"_Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,_

_turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!"_

He waved his wand about but nothing happened. He poked his rat, which was seating on his lap, gently, but nothing happened. He just rolled onto the floor. Neville wondered if it was even alive--it certainly LOOKED like it was dead.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked, "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family is magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the greatest school of witchcraft there is I've heard-I've learned all the course books by heart, I just hope it will be enough-I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She stopped after this long speech very abruptly. Neville was, by this point, completely kicking himself for even stumbling into her compartment in the first place. He felt awkward just sitting there while Hermione went on about spellwork. He needed to find Trevor! Should he sit down, or just leave?

"Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

Neville let out a little squeak. NO WAY! There was no way that THE Harry Potter was sitting right there, in front of him...

"Are you really?" Hermione asked, her eyes popping out of her head slightly. "I know all about you, of course-I got a few books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_."

"Am I?" Harry asked in a small voice.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, and Neville considered leaving again.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," she said. "Do you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad…Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, and Neville lamely followed her.

"Let's try the next one," Hermione said, heading in the direction of the carriage where the blonde haired girl sat with her two friends.

"I've been to that one already. I've been to all of these," Neville pointed out to her. She was dragging him in the same direction he had just come.

A group of 3rd year boys, including a pair of red haired twins, rushed passed them, bumping into Hermione slightly. They were too busy shouting and hollering about something to notice.

"Oh, really!" Hermione moaned in exasperation.

"You know, um, I'm sure if anyone finds a toad, they'll let me know," Neville muttered. "Why don't we go back and sit down?" he asked.

"No, you can sit in my compartment, I'm going to talk to the conductor," she replied in a very snooty voice.

What she was going to talk to him about was anyone's guess. A moment later she had walked toward the end of the train and out of sight.

Neville sighed and walked into the empty compartment. He plopped down in one of the fluffy chairs and rested his head against the glass. It felt cool against the throbbing headache he now had. Slowly his eyes got heavier until he finally fell asleep.

* * *

Neville was beyond ecstatic as he walked away from the staff table--so excited, in fact, that he had forgotten to give the sorting hat back to McGonagall at first. Whoops. He hurried back and gave the hat to the professor while trying to ignore the sniggers from his fellow students (especially the ones from the Slytherin table). But who cared, really? He was in GRYFFINDOR! He had been hoping for Hufflepuff at the best, and instead, he got in the best one!

As the feast passed and he listened to the stories of his fellow Gryffindors, he found that it was only HE who had ever been dropped from a window to test his magical ability. Everyone else seemed to come from relatively normal families. Luckily for him, no one seemed to want to ask him about his parents. Part of him was a tad disappointed that they weren't taking much of an interest in him, but then again--did he WANT them to ask? Of course not! And besides, even if they weren't asking him questions about himself now, they'd be together for seven years. He didn't need to make best friends with any of them TONIGHT.

Although it would be nice for someone to ask him more about himself. Right now he was just the loony who came from a family that had been under the impression that he was a Squib for most of his life. That was what was to be expected, though, since Harry Potter was also a Gryffindor. He was much more interesting than Neville.

Once the feast had finally ended--after a very odd performance of the school song--Neville joined his fellow Gryffindors in following the Prefect to the common room. As they were leaving the hall,, however, he felt someone tug on his sleeve.

"Did you ever find your toad?"

Neville turned around to see the blonde girl from the train headed his way. He quickly tried to recall her name from the sorting...Oh, what was it again? Curse his awful memory! He even remembered watching her get sorted...she was the first to put on the hat, and she got in Hufflepuff...

Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't even noticed that he hadn't answered her question yet. It took him a few seconds to remember why she was staring at him like she was waiting for something. His cheeks began to heat up and he stared at his feet.

"Oh, yeah, I found him...thanks for asking," he mumbled with a small smile.

"I'm Hannah, by the way," she said, holding out a friendly hand for a handshake.

Neville wasn't sure what to do. Could this possibly be some sort of trap? After his run in with those bullies on the train he had become rather cautious around his peers--but no, Hannah seemed nice enough. She seemed to be genuinely sincere about that handshake.

He shook. "I'm Neville...Neville Longbottom," he told her. She giggled and he wondered if it was at his last name...he knew it sounded a bit odd but there was no need to poke fun!

"Nice to meet you Neville...well, I just wanted to see if you had found him. I guess we're going this way," she said, pointing at the retreating Hufflepuffs who were headed down a staircase nearby. "Bye!" she called before hurrying off, just as quickly as she came.

Blinking in a sort of shock, Neville quickly rejoined his fellow Gryffindors as they began the trek up the staircases to their common room. Well, that was interesting. No one from his own house seemed to have taken any interest in him, yet someone from Hufflepuff (the house he had been completely SURE he was going to be sorted in) had bothered to ask him about his toad. How ironic!

As he followed his peers up the stairs, he couldn't help wishing Hannah had been in Gryffindor. Maybe then, at least, he'd have someone to talk to.


	2. The Invisible Longbottom Boy

Neville's first couple of months at Hogwarts did start off as nicely as he had hoped.

First, there had been the broomstick incident. Like most accidents, it just _had_ to happen to him, and he ended up with a broken wrist. There was no way he would have been able to restore his dignity after that (not that he had very much to begin with, of course) and add in all those potions incidents, and Madam Pomfrey was going to know him by name at this rate.

Then there had been that whole unfortunate incident with the dog. That monsterous three headed dog had haunted his sleep for nights on end, and while Harry and Ron (and eventually Hermione, once she became friends with them) became very interested in the dog and the room it was being kept in, he was very content to just stay the hell away from it.

But this one--oh, this one took the cake. He had been doing it out of good intentions, of course...he had been trying to warn them. He hadn't been bright enough to think about the consequences of his decision, and how HE might get in trouble for trying to warn them about Malfoy. Why didn't he see that it was all a sham? Who on Earth would be dumb enough to buy the lie and believe that Harry and Hermione were trying to set a DRAGON free?

Apparently, he was. And it had just cost him, and the rest of Gryffindor house, 150 points.

He had tried not to cry about it--after all, they would be sure to take the mickey out of him when they found out in the morning, and he didn't need to add to it by being the ickle first year who cried himself to sleep at night. But he couldn't help it. It was going to be horrific waking up in the morning and seeing the Gryffindor's react to the massive house point loss.

Just as he had predicted, word started to get around awfully quickly that Harry Potter and a few other nameless first years had lost their house 150 points. People were a bit nicer to Harry about it, because he was THE Harry Potter, after all, but as for him and Hermione--they were completely ignored. Even Dean and Seamus, whom he had started to become pretty decent friends with, stopped talking to him out of anger at his stupidity.

A few days after the whole fiasco, the Gryffindors were still pretty pissed and weren't talking to him yet. Dean and Seamus had at least grunted good morning before inhaling their food and heading off to class, so Neville was left to eat his oatmeal alone. It was alright, though--he had since accepted the fact that he would be eating alone from now on, and there was nothing he could do to change it. He was doomed. Doomed for the rest of his life at Hogwarts.

A few minutes into the meal, however, he felt someone sit down across from him. He looked up and saw that it was none other than Hannah Abbott, which was an interesting surprise. They hadn't talked one on one since the day they had met--she had always been too busy talking to her Hufflepuff friends to really pay attention to Gryffindors.

"I heard what happened," she said softly, frowning a bit. Was she here to make fun of him too? That was JUST what he needed.

"I reckon there isn't a soul in here who doesn't know," he muttered, addressing his bowl and refusing to look her in the face. "I'll bet the ghosts have heard about it too."

"Oh, don't get discouraged! You need to be positive--it will blow over," she said. Ahh, so that was why she was here, was it? She was trying to cheer him up?

"But Hannah, no one in Gryffindor will even TALK to me!" he moaned. He blinked as a thought occurred to him. "In fact, why are YOU even talking to me?"

She giggled. "Well, I kind of gathered that you and that Granger girl were getting the cold shoulder, and I figured you could use a little company," she explained. Neville's paranoid mind started whirling immediately--was she really here to talk to Hermione, but had instead gotten stuck with him instead?

She started twirling one of her pigtails around her pointer finger. "They'll forget it eventually, you know. It's just house points--it's not the end of the world."

She started swinging her legs back and forth on the bench across from him, her feet dangling inches above the ground. Sighing, he went back to eating his oatmeal. Apparently she wasn't going to go away any time soon. Might as well not let his meal get cold while we was waiting.

"So...you don't think I was...stupid or anything like that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he questioned her. It was quite clear to everyone, even himself, that he hadn't been thinking and he had paid the price, so if she didn't think he was a complete idiot he would be amazed.

Hannah shook her head. "No, I think what you did was very brave. Just like a Gryffindor! You were trying to protect your friends and look out for them. I think that's nice, and if everyone is giving you grief about it they should just shut their mouths."

He blinked in shock and stared at her for a moment. When she put it like THAT--she kind of had a good point. Why should he be worried about what everyone else thought about his actions? He HAD been doing it to try and protect his friends from Malfoy...he just happened to get caught while he was doing it.

He put down his spoon and looked up at her. "Why are you talking to me again?"

"Because I noticed that people don't usually talk to you, so...I thought it might be nice for someone else to start a conversation with you every once in a while," she explained, smiling as she finished and giggling again.

Neville chuckled as well. "Umm, I guess, uh...thanks for that. It IS nice talking to someone who isn't a Gryffindor for a change."

She nodded. "And I saw that Malfoy boy pick on you a few weeks ago, when he locked your legs together...I called him a big bully after you left, you know," she added.

Neville blinked. Someone had actually--stood up for him after he left? That was--that was unheard of! "You--you did?"

"Yeah, Ernie actually did more of the talking than I did, though...you've seen Ernie in class, haven't you?" she chuckled, bringing a grin to his face as well. Ernie was very outspoken when he wanted to be, and a stickler for the rules. He could definitely picture the blond boy arguing with Malfoy over bullying in the halls.

"You know, I tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle by myself at the Quidditch match," he said suddenly. A strange urge had overtaken him and he felt the need to try and make himself seem a lot cooler than he appeared to be--and that was the first thing that popped in his head.

Her mouth fell open and she gasped. "You DIDN'T!"

He nodded. "I--I got knocked out cold," he said, and as soon as she burst into laughter, he found himself laughing as well. It was odd how he was suddenly able to joke about a situation he would NOT have found funny a few days ago.

"Well what did you expect? Each of them are twice the size of you so that's like...taking on FOUR of you at once!" Hannah giggled.

As they laughed over the situation, their conversation was interrupted with the arrival of Ernie and Susan, who had wandered over from the Hufflepuff table, carrying their bags.

"Come on Hannah, we're going to be late for class!" Susan said with a small giggle, tugging on her friend's robe. "Have you even been keeping watch on the time?"

"Of course she hasn't, you know she's too stubborn to wear a watch," Ernie replied, grinning as Hannah stood up from the table. He turned to Neville, who had stood up as well to collect his own school things. "Hello Neville! Good morning?"

Neville nodded. "Yeah, pretty good, thanks," he replied. He felt like blushing right now--all these people talking to him all of a sudden...it almost felt like things were starting to return to normal. Almost.

"Well, I'll talk to you later Neville, alright?" Hannah asked as she took her bag from Susan and threw it over her shoulder. Susan and Ernie gave him polite waves as a goodbye before turning to follow their friend out of the Great Hall.

As Neville headed to his first class of the day, trailing behind Harry, Ron and Hermione, who seemed to be in an intense discussion at the moment, he started replaying the conversation from breakfast over and over in his head. Now that someone had had the decency to try and show him a little support and offer him encouragement, his predicament really didn't seem all that bad. She was right, things would blow over eventually...Dean and Seamus would forgive him, he was certain, and Hermione and Harry were in the same boat as him. Losing a couple points wasn't really the worst thing in the world--after all, he had survived two near death experiences so far this term as well. Imagine how horrible THOSE situations could have turned out!

As he walked into the Charms classroom, he concluded that Hannah was alright. You know, for a girl.


	3. Making Girls Cry

_10 points! He, Neville Longbottom, had actually earned himself TEN POINTS! It was incredible, and unbelieveable, and that fact that it had actually won them the House Cup was just...even more amazing._

_"Great job Neville! I knew you had it in ya!" Seamus yelled as he jumped up and down, waving his hat above his head like a mad man._

_Numerous other Gryffindors, none of whom he knew by name since they were all a few years older than him, where patting him on the back and cheering their thanks as well. The compliments continued even as he boarded the train, when a Hufflepuff with very familar pigtails pushed her way through the crowd to him._

_"See! Told you they'd get over it eventually Neville!"_

_...._

"Neville? NEVILLE!"

Neville jumped, hitting his head on the glass window as he did so. THUNK. Groaning and rubbing his forehead, Seamus and Dean laughed as Neville chucked a chocolate frog wrapper at the two of them.

"You're a deep sleeper, mate...I was trying to wake you for a whole minute! What were you dreaming about anyways? You were smiling," Seamus said with a mischevious grin, raising an eyebrow at him.

Neville rolled his eyes and laughed. "Seamus you prat--it wasn't anything like THAT!" he insisted. Horny little bloke...half the boys in their year still believed girls had cooties, but not Seamus. It was gross. "I was just dreaming about the feast last term, that's all."

"Ahhh," Dean replied with a nodd of understanding. "I still can't get over it...that was WICKED, man! The look on Malfoy's face when we beat Slytherin! I wish I had a camera with me!" he said with a laugh.

Neville grinned. "It really was amazing--a great end to a great first year, yeah?"

Both of his friends nodded in agreement.

"Oi, that reminds me...anyone seen Ron or Harry?" Dean asked, glancing out the compartment as a few Ravenclaw's passed. They hadn't seen their dormmates the entire trip, which was odd since they had seen Hermione up and about earlier. If they weren't all attached at the hip as always, then where were they?

"D'you reckon they didn't come back this year?" Seamus asked, a worried look on his face.

Neville shook his head. "That wouldn't make sense...besides, I saw Fred and George earlier, so if they're here then Ron and Harry are bound to be somewhere, right?"

Seamus and Dean nodded in unison once again. "Yeah, I suppose you're right..." Dean said, trailing off and looking out into the corridor. When he looked back, he was grinning. "Don't go telling Ron or anything, but have you seen his sister? Right HOTTIE that one is," he declared as Seamus threw another piece of candy at him.

After Dean retaliated by smacking Seamus over the head, he turned to Neville. "Red heads aren't your taste though, are they Neville? You fancy the brunette, bushy haired ones, don't you?" he teased. Seamus snorted and began to laugh hysterically next to him.

Ahh, they had returned to their favorite sport. Poking fun at Longbottom. The one activity that Neville didn't particularly enjoy.

He blushed. "I dunno what you're talking about," he said, crossing his arms moodily and staring out the window. This just caused the preteen boys to laugh even more.

"Please Neville, we've all seen the way you look at her--you're like a little puppy dog. It's...well, it's pathetic really," Seamus joked with an evil grin.

"Shut it!" Neville exclaimed, turning and punching Seamus on the forearm. It wasn't very hard and most likely wouldn't stop the teasing. "Why do you always bring that up? Who cares if I somewhat fancy her...I think it's quite obvious that she fancies Harry!"

Really, who could blame her? After all, he was THE Harry Potter. The way they were always together clearly proved that Hermione had feelings for him. Or--maybe feelings for Ron? No, that was completely absurd. After all, Ron and her bickered far too much to ever have a crush on each other. The day that Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger got together was the day that pigs flied.

"What on Earth is going on in here?"

The door to their compartment slid open and in walked Ernie, Hannah, and their friend Justin Finch-Fletchy, whom Neville had never talked to. They had obviously been drawn in by the sound of Seamus and Dean's laughter--and the resulting shouting of Neville.

"Oh, we're just teasing Longbottom about the fact that he fancies Granger," Seamus told them, smirking at Neville who had turned bright red within seconds.

"Do you really?" Hannah asked with interest, raising a blonde brow. "But I thought she fancied Harry."

"She DOES so they shouldn't be bothering me about it," Neville grumbled, glaring at Dean and Seamus, who seemed to still find this situation hilarious.

"Aww, I think that's kind of sweet. Don't give up, Neville," Hannah said, grinning in encouragement.

That was so typical of Hannah. Always trying to convince him not to give up.

"Has anyone even SEEN Potter today?" Ernie asked, bringing up their earlier concern about the well being of their black haired friend. Everyone shook their head.

"Well, that's strange...perhaps we should get going Hannah? Susan wandered off with Terry Bott and you know that boy won't remember what carriage we were in before..." Ernie said with a sigh. Justin nodded in agreement and Hannah grinned.

"Alright--well, good to see you all again!" she said, waving to the three Gryffindor boys as she walked out the corridor.

As she left, Seamus tapped his chin in thought, clearly thinking about something of great importance.

"You know Longbottom, if things don't work out with Granger you could always try and start something up with Hannah--without those pigtails she could be decently cute!" he said.

Ewwww, date Hannah Abbott? What an insanely ludicrous idea! Neville made a gagging noise and threw another frog at Seamus just as Dean took another swipe at his head. He would never EVER consider dating the bubbly, bouncy blonde Hufflepuff girl.

Neville was completely oblivious to the fact that, upon the mentioning of this idea, his face had turned beet red and his ears had gotten extremely hot.

* * *

For the first time in almost a year, Hannah and Neville were in the same room, and they hadn't said a single word to each other.

Over the first couple of months of his second year, Hannah and him had started to talk a lot more and had started to become pretty decent friends. As usual, despite his amazing triumph in house points last term, few people were paying attention to him, and as she normally did, Hannah had begun to talk to him out of pity. She always told him that she hated seeing him sitting by himself all the time.

But today, they weren't talking as they frantically worked through their homework in the library. Instead, they were frantically writing their essays on black holes in silence. And he knew exactly why. He had heard what Ernie said to Harry the other day...and he knew, just KNEW, that Hannah believed that horrible lie as well.

Unable to stand the tension any longer, he broke the silence. "Harry isn't behind those attacks, you know," he grumbled.

Hannah looked up at him and frowned. "What are you--?" she began, even though she had turned extremely red.

"I know what everyone is saying Hannah, and it's not true! I know Ernie believes it's true too..."

She cut him off. "But Neville, how can you be sure it isn't him? I mean...you saw what he did at the Duelling Club, right? I mean...Justin is in hiding now because of it! And if being a good friend makes Ernie a bad person then..."

Neville rolled his eyes. "I never said he was a bad person--it's just his judgement is off a bit! And you BELIEVE him, don't you?" he asked, pointing his finger at her accusingly.

They were getting rather loud now, and he was sure in a matter of minutes Madame Pince would come and start shouting at them to get out. Hannah seemed to be thinking along the sames lines. Rather than bite back, she slammed her book shut and began to storm out of the library.

Groaning, Neville grabbed his things as well and followed her. As he had suspected, the moment they were safely in the corridor, she turned and started yelling at him again, hands on her hips and looking bossier than he had ever thought possible.

"Why are you SO certain that Harry isn't doing this, huh? Because he's your HERO over in Gryffindor? There's a lot of evidence against him Neville and I don't think you can really look past it!" she exclaimed.

"Or maybe you're just so GULLIBLE that you'll believe anything Ernie shoves down your throat!" he snapped.

She stopped, mouth open and ready to attack again. Neville could tell immediately that he had hurt her, and his own temper had stunned him. He never would have said that to her in his right mind--something must have gotten into him. Something completely mental.

She bit her lip and he could see the tears forming in her eyes. Oh no, he had made her cry--he had never made a girl cry before! That was just so...wrong! Neville could immediately feel all his anger vanished, and all he cared about right now was making her feel better.

"Hannah, I'm so--"

"You know what? FINE!" Hannah cried, turning on her heel and marching towards the kitchens as tears began to flow down her flushed cheeks. When she got half way down the corridor, she turned to face him, and what she said next echoed down the corridor.

"I hope he attacks your precious little girlfriend Hermione next!" she exclaimed before letting out a sob and hurrying out of sight.


	4. Interrogation

She had been staring at him throughout the whole feast.

Of course, everytime Neville looked up to try and catch her eye, she'd look away. Sometimes she pretended to be absorbed in conversation with Ernie, and other times, she would talk to Justin, no doubt telling him for the hundredth time how nice it was for him to be back.

Everyone at the Gryffindor table, meanwhile, kept asking Harry to tell them again about what happened in the Chamber of Secrets. Their table was filled with people from the other houses (even a few of the nicer Slytherins had wandered over) to hear the story, although Neville got the distinct impression that Harry was leaving out huge bits of the story. The only reason anyone even knew about the whole basilisk incident was because of the Sorting Hat--that thing had a bigger mouth than Pansy Parkinson and soon enough, the entire school had found out.

Ron put his own details into the story by the time they got on the train the next morning, obviously fabricating it quite a bit. Dean and Seamus dragged Neville into a compartment with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny so they could hear the story again, but halfway through Ron's retelling of the events (Harry had conveniantly fallen asleep a moment before they arrived) Neville decided to go for a walk.

He found her a few compartments over, conventiently sitting by herself. Hmmm, that was odd...where was Ernie and Susan? Or Justin? Deciding that he better snag this opportunity while it lasted, he knocked on the door and let himself in.

She looked up at him, and upon realizing it was him, immediately looked back at the floor again. He sat down awkwardly across from her, and a few moments passed before he finally thought of what to say.

"Look, Hannah, I just want to come right off the bat and say that--I'm sorry about what I said to you a few months ago," he said. He looked down at his own feet as he spoke. It felt weird to be looking at her when she wasn't looking at him. "About you being gullible and all that."

She didn't say anything for a while, she just sighed and shook her head. "No,it's alright, you don't need to apologize...you were completely right. Dead on, in fact. I WAS really gullible. I had a feeling that it wasn't Harry who was behind all the attacks but--I still listened to Ernie when he suggested it was him."

"Well, still, it wasn't a nice thing to say!" Neville insisted. "I guess I can kind of see why you thought that--after all, Harry being a parseltongue doesn't really say much for him. I...I was an arse to you," he muttered.

That got a little chuckle out of her. She bit her lip and pulled her legs up to her chest.

"And...I'm sorry I said I hoped the monster would attack Hermione. That was an awful thing to say, especially since...well, you know..."

"Yeah," Neville said. It was eerily ironic how, just a few short weeks after that, Hermione had gotten petrified as well. She was lucky she wasn't killed...Neville could only imagine the type of guilt Hannah had to be feeling after that.

"It's alright--you were upset with me, you didn't mean it," he replied.

She nodded. "Yeah, I never wanted Hermione to get attacked. I just--wanted to say something to hurt you as badly as I had been hurt."

"It's alright...I forgive you," Neville told her with a head nod.

After a few more moments of silence, Hannah sat up straight again. "So, friends again?" she asked, holding out a hand for a handshake.

Neville chuckled. "Yeah, I guess we can be friends again," he said with a smile, returning her handshake. Just like that, he felt like something was right in his life again. Not talking to Hannah (or any girls, for that matter really, since Hermione had been petrified most of their last few months) had been really strange, and something was just off every time he saw her. He couldn't really explain it.

It must have just been the fact that she was always so nice to him. That was something about her that he just wasn't ready to give up any time soon.

* * *

Neville liked being out in the garden. It was a great place to think--and he had never really realized how many beautiful plants his gran had out there. It made him feel like he was at the Herbology greenhouses, having not a care in the world as he just worked on the plants and enjoyed his time doing the one thing he was actually GOOD at.

When he discovered that he could use the garden as a bit of a getaway from the real world (and his gran) the plants had never looked better. He was out there for hours at a time each and every day, and the only time he ever saw his gran was at mealtimes. Not that he didn't love his gran or anything--he was just awfully sick of her criticizing, even if she did mean well.

The current subject of choice with her...his height. Normal people would see a sudden growth spurt as a good thing, but all he got out of his gran about it so far was what a nuisance it was. She complained about having to buy him new pants, and how his father had never grown that much in one summer, and how he was probably almost a foot taller than everyone else in his year...

It was even worse when the family was over. And that was why Neville was out in the garden right now.

He had managed to steal a good three hours away from his aunt and uncle when he was finally summoned into the living room to have tea with the family. He ignored his gran for a few moments as she called for him, but eventually he gave in--he could only reasonably fake deafness for a certain amount of time.

He quietly snuck into the parlour as sat down in the nearest armchair as his Uncle Algie finished up a story about his recent trip to India. He hoped that he hadn't been noticed, but his cover was blown when he accidentally dropped the sugar bowl and it smashed to pieces on the floor.

His gran turned in surprise and, once she saw what had happened, rolled her eyes. "For goodness sake, Neville, try and be more careful!"

She whipped out her wand and with a small flick, the sugar bowl had repaired itself and the sugar was housed inside once more. Neville sighed and sank into his chair, blushing.

"So, Neville, your Gran was just telling me here that you got an O on your Herbology final again," Uncle Algie said with a friendly smile. He could see his gran rolling her eyes out of the corner of his view. Neville nodded.

"I keep telling him he should try to focus on Transfiguration," Augusta piped in, nodding her head so dangerously that her hat nearly fell off.

And so it began.

Neville cleared his throat. "Oh well, erm, I've been trying really hard to get that grade up there...next year I really think I'll manage an E in it," he added.

"Well, getting an O in Herbology is all fine, just the same," Algie said, glancing at Augusta before grinning encouragingly at Neville. He wanted to sink into the chair right now--it was all nice of Uncle Algie to support him and all but his gran was just scary...he didn't know how Algie did it, standing up to her like that.

There was silence for a bit as everyone drank their tea. Neville wondered how long he would have to stay there, listening to them talk about him and ask him questions, when his Aunt Enid sat up straighter in her seat. Clearly, she was about to add to the conversation--and she only did that when she thought she had something very important to say.

"So, Neville, do you have any girlfriends yet?" she asked him sweetly.

_Oh good Merlin._

His gran laughed and shook her head. "Oh no, there is no way Neville has a girlfriend yet, he's only just turned thirteen! Although, who is that one girl you talk about all the time Neville? What is her name again?"

"Oh, there's a girl?" Enid asked, grinning with interest.

Neville's cheeks were the same color as tomatoes, and he found it very difficult to speak at the moment. "Oh erm...no, she's nothing, she's just a friend is all..."

"Oh, just a friend...rubbish! Go on Neville, what was her name again? It started with an H, I'm quite sure...HERMIONE! Yes, that was it, Hermione Granger was her name!" Augusta exclaimed, clearly overjoyed at the fact that she had just remembered the name of the girl she was certain Neville was going to marry.

"Granger, is that a wizarding name?" Algie asked with interest, raising a gray eyebrow.

"No, Neville said she's a muggleborn, and smartest in their year too," Augusta explained.

"Oh, that's wonderful Neville! Good for you!" Enid said, turning to him with a grin.

Groaning, Neville clapped a hand to his forehead as the adults went on and on about how wonderful it would be for Neville to be in a relationship with the smartest girl in his year. He looked over his shoulder at the door--he had a fairly large stride now, all it would take was a few steps and he'd be out in the garden once again...

"There was another girl, wasn't there Neville?" His gran asked, dragging him into the ridiculous conversation once more. He frowned.

"Yeah, her name was Hannah, but Hannah isn't my girlfriend--and neither is Hermione," he said, trying to set the record straight once and for all. Which, with his relatives, was not an easy feat.

"Oh, Hannah sounds lovely too. Hannah and Hermione--both such pleasant names. They must be very pretty little girls," Enid said with a little giggle.

Hermione was very pretty, yes, but...Hannah wasn't pretty. Or--was she? Now that his attention had been brought to it, he realized that Hannah was fairly good looking. Not as good looking as Hermione of course, but she was somewhat cute. Those pigtails kind of ruined it all for him, though.

"Erm, yes, pretty..." was all Neville could manage. This was precisely why Neville didn't like when the family (or any visitor, for that matter) came to call--the conversation almost ALWAYS revolved around him, and it always made him feel uncomfortable.

If only Neville could do magic outside of school--there was a potted plant a few feet away from him just past the door on their lawn. Just a flick of his wand, and the pot would fall to the ground and give him the perfect excuse to go back outside.

Just as he was thinking of faking the stomach flu so he could escape to the bathroom, his gran turned to him. "Oh, Neville dear, I forgot to check to see if the post had come today--could you run and check for me really quickly?" she asked him.

Neville nodded. The post normally came in the kitchen, and the kitchen was near the stairs, where he could easily escape and run up to his room.

Neville had never run out of the parlour so fast in his life.


	5. Banned from Hogsmeade

"I'm such an idiot!"

"No, you're not, Neville..."

"Yes I am Hannah! And don't say I'm not cause you're not going to change my mind!"

Neville was seated at the Great Hall, which was very empty at the moment. Having been banned from all trips to Hogsmeade for the rest of the year, he figured he would be very alone on weekends from now on. Hannah had stayed behind to comfort him today, though, and although he didn't want to admit it, he really needed the comforting right now.

"Look Hannah, I lost the passwords and Sirius Black picked them up--my stupid mistake almost got Ron killed!" he exclaimed, running a hand through his hair before taking a swig of his pumpkin juice. This only made him feel worse--butterbeer was soooo much better than lousy old pumpkin juice.

"Neville, it could have happened to anybody," Hannah said, biting her lip and absentmindedly playing with a pigtail as she spoke.

"Yeah, but it happened to ME. I wouldn't have even happened in the first place if I didn't have such a rubbish memory," Neville grumbled.

She shook her head. "No, that's not true! If that stupid knight who is guarding your tower didn't keep changing them all the time, you wouldn't have had to write them all down!" she said. "It would have gotten anyone confused, Neville."

"Still...Ron could have been KILLED, Hannah," Neville groaned, placing his forehead against the table. To his intense surprise, she patted him a couple of times on the back. That was new...when did they start doing that for each other?

"But he WASN'T now, was he? You need to stop dwelling on what COULD have happened and just focus on the fact that nothing did happen!"

He sat up again and rubbed his forehead, which had a red spot from the table, no doubt. "Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do but can't you just let me wallow in my own self pity for a change?" he asked with an eyeroll.

She giggled and shook her head. "No, because I'm not going to let you feel sorry for yourself!"

He rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, cause someone ELSE feeling sorry for me is soooo much better," he grumbled.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "I'm your friend Neville, and this is what friends do. They TALK to each other and try to make each other feel better when something catastrophic like this happens. Would I be a good friend if I sat there laughing at you yesterday when the Howler from your gran came?" she asked.

He wrinkled his eyebrows. "Hannah, you DID laugh at the Howler."

"No, I was laughing at YOU, running out of the hall like you though the Howler was a bomb or something," she explained.

Neville let out a small chuckle, and she smiled. "See? That got a little smile out of you. Guess I'm doing my job then" she said with a tiny smirk.

He took another swig of pumpkin juice, feeling slightly better than he had a few minutes ago. "Do you want to go down to Hogsmeade now?" he asked. "You don't have to sit here with me all day--I can manage for ONE afternoon, you know," he said with a small smile.

She tapped her chin in thought before shaking her head. "No, I don't think I want to go down there today. Want to go for a walk around the grounds instead?" she asked.

Part of him wanted to say no--he had been up all night crying, just a bit (not that he would ever admit that--he had gotten very good at the Impenetrable charm so no one ever needed to know that little detail) so he really could use a nap right now. Then again, it would probably be good for him to get out of the castle, considering everything that had happened.

"Alright. Let's go for a walk."

* * *

"You know Hannah, I feel like lately, whenever we talk, you're just trying to cheer me up about something," Neville said as they walked along the grounds. Snow was falling lightly around them as they walked, and there were a number of people scattered around the lake, having stayed behind from Hogsmeade to play in the snow instead.

She nodded. "Yeah, I kind of feel like that too...so, how about we talk about normal stuff? You know, the stuff that friends talk to each other about," she said with a small grin.

"You mean, something that doesn't have to do with how I'm not a hopeless arse? I dunno, that might be too much to try and handle in one day, Hannah," Neville joked.

She chuckled and sat down on a nearby rock, whipping the rock clean of all the snow before settling down. "So, how are things going with Hermione?" she asked him, a mischevious grin surfacing on her face.

Oh lord. He should have known that she would bring up a subject like that. Sitting down on the rock next to her, he sighed. "She's obviously still in love with Harry--or Ron, it's getting REALLY hard to tell with those two--and she barely knows I exist. Nothing new there," he explained.

She frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry Neville," she said, giving him a sort of one handed hug as she spoke. He blinked and looked at her in a sort of shock--first the back patting, now this? Since when had they become friends that had physical contact?

She looked down at her feet for a while before speaking up. "Umm, I have a question. How do you--well, how did you know that you liked Hermione?" she asked softly.

He blinked again, staring at her before finally remembering that he had to answer her. He wrinkled his eyebrows in thought. That was a very good question, now that he thought about it.

"Well--she's always been really nice to me and helped me with potions and transfiguration, and I guess--I dunno, I get kind of...what's the word?" he asked himself, thinking out loud, "I get very...flustered whenever she's around. I'm always thinking about what I'm going to say and wondering if my hair looks alright." he explained.

She nodded. "Oh," was all she said before looking at her feet again, kicking up piles of snow that started to build at the base of the rock.

"Why?" he asked. She had brought the subject up, after all, so she must have had a reason for asking it. "Do you think that you like someone?" he asked with interest.

She blushed and smirked a little bit. "Yeah, I was thinking that...well, I dunno, I think I've been feeling that way about someone lately," she said with a sheepish giggle.

"You have?" Neville asked with a laugh. This was actually kind of fun, talking about things that didn't revolve about his sad failures in life. For some reason, he felt his heart rate speed up suddenly--it must have been the anticipation of finding out one of Hannah's secrets. Yeah, that had to be it. Now he'd finally have something to throw back in HER face whenever she brought up his crush on Hermione.

"Yeah but I dunno, I think...I think I like Ernie, Neville," she said with another giggle.

Strangely, Neville felt like that answer had been very anti-climatic but he wasn't sure why--perhaps it was because that was the obvious answer? Ernie and Hannah were together ALL the time, so it really wasn't surprising to him that she admitted that she might have feelings for him.

"Are you going to tell him?" he asked.

She bit her lip, thinking it over. All the while her cheeks were turning a dark shade of pink. "Maybe...I don't know..." she stopped and a sly grin slid across her face. "How about YOU tell Hermione that you like her, and I'll tell Ernie?"

Neville snorted. "Hannah, if you wait for me to tell her you'll never talk to him!" he exclaimed.

She blushed again and grinned. "Yeah, that was kind of the point of me suggesting, really," she giggled. She let out a little shriek as Neville took a handful of snow off the ground and chucked it at her, grinning nonetheless.

"Shall we go back inside? I'm freezing my bum off," she muttered a few moments later, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

He agreed, and they walked back to the castle, stopping only once because they saw Malfoy coming back in with Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini, arms filled high with Zonko's products. They would most likely use said products on Neville if they spotted him, so they hung back and let them get far ahead before heading back into the castle.

"I think I'm going to head back to the tower...I actually remember the password today and I want to get up there before he changes it and I forget again," Neville grumbled.

Hannah frowned. "That's right...I forgot people were forbidden to give it to you too," she muttered softly.

He sighed. "Ehh well, hopefully some forgiving soul will let me in if I forget," he said quietly. They stood there for a few more minutes as silence surronded them when suddenly, Hannah marched forward and gave him a hug.

Neville wasn't sure what to do at first. A _hug?_ They never hugged! His own GRAN hardly ever hugged him! He blindly patted her back with his arm and she heard him giggle at his lame attempt to hug her back...but he had to do SOMETHING. They were having more one on one contact today than he would probably have for the rest of Hogwarts career.

"Wha--what was that for?" he asked her, finding it incredibly difficult to speak as she pulled away. She giggled again and he wished for a moment that she was still holding him...it felt like he had been wrapped in a giant blanket, or like he had been holding a big, fluffy teddy bear.

"Just, you know--to tell you to not give up," she told him with a soft smile. With a tiny wave, she turned on her heel and headed towards the kitchens without antoher word, turning to give him a little wave again once she reached the end of the corridor and turned out of sight.

Neville waved back to her and, still completely confused about what had just happened, walked back to his dormitory.


	6. Raging Hormones and New Feelings

_Hello all. Sorry updates aren't coming as fast as they were before—I was moving back to college so I got a bit sidetracked. Anywho, here we go again! Oh, and I hope I don't come off like I'm rushing through the years…once they get older I swear I'll have more than one or two chapters devoted to one year, I swear xD _

* * *

"Neville!"

He turned around quickly when he heard his name being called. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that it was Hannah. He hadn't seen her on the train this trip, and for some reason he felt completely ecstatic when he saw her.

She ran up to him and gave him a big hug in greeting, and he felt once again like he was being wrapped up by a giant blanket. She pulled away and a wave of sweet smelling perfume filled his nostrils. Hmmm, so she was wearing perfume now, huh? At least this stuff smelled really good—unlike his gran's, which smelled like old cats. Hannah's smelled like…raspberries. That was what it was. And it smelled amazing.

"Hey Hannah," he said in reply and she walked up to him. "Good summer?"

"The best," she said with a smile. Neville could immediately tell that something was different, but he wasn't exactly sure what it was. The answer hit him suddenly and he blinked in shock. She had gotten rid of the pigtails. She was wearing her hair down and it was the first time he had ever seen it that way—it looked very good, he had to admit. She had a lot of layers that made her hair look all wavy and shiny, and it made her look ten times older than she had before.

"I really like your hair like that, you should wear it like that more often!" he told her with a smile.

"Thanks! I actually think I might do that…you look great, by the way," Hannah said with a giggle as she looked him up and down. Neville felt his cheeks blush. Due to all those growth spurts that had occurred over the summer, he had pretty much lost most of his baby fat except some in his face. He was still very self conscious about it, though, especially since three people had been kind enough to point it out already.

"I like your hair too." She added, ruffling his new long locks playfully as they walked down the platform. "Did you get taller?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips in a very accusatory sort of way.

"Oh God, I hope not," Neville moaned. At this rate, people were going to think he has half giant like Hagrid.

"I wish I was tall like you," Hannah said as they headed off towards the carriages.

"No, you don't, trust me." He said.

She laughed. His heart leapt again. That was strange.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, okay? I have to get back to them," she said, cocking her shoulder towards Susan, Ernie and Justin.

"Alright," he said, feeling a pinch of jealousy at the fact that she was leaving. Once again, he found himself wishing that Hannah was in Gryffindor, and not Hufflepuff. That would make hanging out with her a lot more convenient.

"Bye!" she called, turning away.

"Bye," he replied, waving to her.

She smiled and walked back to her group, flipping her hair about again. Neville watched her walk, and suddenly found his eyes drifting down to her backside. She had hips now. How come he never noticed that before? He suddenly realized that she had curves all over her body. She looked like an hourglass. His eyes looked up and he also noticed how nice her breasts looked in that shirt. How come he had never noticed _that_ before?

His senses came screaming back to him a second later. _Don't look at Hannah like that! She's your best girl mate in the world!_

But another part of his brain was saying, _Who cares, really? She looks amazing. That shirt she's wearing looks beautiful on her figure. God, those things should be illegal!_

He blinked and shook his head. Why was he having those thoughts about Hannah? He _shouldn't_ be having those thoughts about her--not at all. They needed to go, and fast! But as he boarded the carriages, all he could think about was the smell of her perfume, her gorgeous figure, the way she had noticed that HE had slimmed out…

Oh god, something was wrong. He had let himself wonder for a moment, just for a moment, what it would be like to kiss her neck, where that fantastic perfume smelled so heavenly. Would she like it if he kissed her neck? He shouldn't even be THINKING about that! And yet, he was, and the thoughts were just not going away. Did this mean what he thought it meant?

No, no no no. He would NOT allow himself to fall for his best girl mate in the world. How awkward would that make things? It would be horrific! Plus, there was probably no way that she thought those things about him. Absolutely not. It was impossible.

Yes, even if he WAS having those feelings about her, he would just--push them to the back of his mind. Ignore them. Yeah, that was it! Cause SHE definitely didn't have feelings for him. If she didn't return his affections, what was the point in dwelling on his fascinations with her perfume? Absolutely none.

With that thought, he got off the carriage and headed into the feast, ready to face Hannah once again.

* * *

Neville was not sure what possessed him to even answer the question in the first place. It was like his arm had acted of its own accord--raising itself against his will. The whole class seemed shocked.

"Yes?" Moody asked, his eye fixating on him instantly. Neville felt like shrinking in his chair-that thing was CREEPY. He cleared his throat, sat up a little straighter, and took a deep breath.

"There's one-the Cruciatus Curse," he answered.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he asked him. It was obvious that Moody had to have recognized the connection. Neville blushed and nodded. Next to him, Hermione looked at him in confusion, almost as if she herself had no idea what was going on.

Moody checked the register once, and then picked up the next spider out of a jar in his desk. It sat there, almost afraid to move. Neville felt his stomach drop as he watched the creature sit there. Poor thing-it had no idea what was in store for it.

"The Cruciatus Curse needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," Moody told the class. Then, he turned his back and yelled "Engorgio!"

The class watched as the spider swelled bigger than a tarantula. Suddenly, Neville felt tense. It was coming, he knew it, it was seconds away, there was no stopping it now…

"Crucio!"

The second the spider started to twitch horribly, Neville felt like his heart had stopped. He gripped the edge of his desk hard, just wishing for it to stop. No creature deserved this--this was too horrible, he could hardly watch, but yet his eyes grew wider with fear with each passing second. He could almost hear the screams of his parents in his ears, even though the spider made no noise to convey it's pain.

"Stop it!"

If Neville hadn't known any better, he would have thought it was his voice that shouted at Moody. But no, the voice had come from Hermione next to him. He let go of the desk with an extreme effort and looked at her, trying to catch his breath.

The rest of the lesson passed in a daze for him. Across the room, he noticed Hannah watching him keenly, almost as if she expected him to keel over at any minute, even as he acted normal again and copied notes.

Once the bell rang, Neville bolted from his chair faster than he had ever moved in his life. He made it half way down the corridor before he stopped and leaned against the wall, staring at the opposite end of the corridor in a daze.

So, those were the same movements his parents had done all those years? Had Bellatrix felt any sort of remorse as she watched them twitch and squirm, scream for mercy, beg her to stop? Of course not, that was a dumb question. She had just sat there and watched them, probably cackling her ugly head off at the sight of them wringling on the ground like worms…

As he stood against the wall, he saw Hannah walk by, looking at him in interest. He had freaked her out, he could tell…he had probably scared the entire class.

He was trying to catch her attention when she looked at the ground, blushing, as she turned the corner. He was so absorbed in what she was thinking about him that he hadn't even noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione approach him from behind.

As soon as he left tea with Moody (which, surprisingly, had not been as bad as he had believed it would be) he found her sitting at the Hufflepuff table. Thankfully he entered the Hall just as Ernie was leaving and he was able to snag a moment alone with her.

Her hair was down again today, and it curled slightly at the bottom. He let out a little sigh, smiling to himself at how pretty she looked before immediately scolding himself for those thoughts and sitting down next to her.

"Hi," he muttered as she looked up at him. She looked surprised.

"Oh, Neville! How are you? Are you…ok?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah…probably gave you a bit of a shock in class, right?" he asked with a small chuckle. He decided the best way, rather than tell her the truth about his parents and how the Cruiciatus Curse horrified him to no end, was to just make light about it.

"Yeah, you did! What was that?" she asked with a small frown.

He bit his lip. "It was just…kind of scary. Worse than I expected, I think," he explained, thinking on the spot. "I guess I always underestimated the horrible power of that curse until I saw it up close," he lied. "Just the thought of someone using that spell on someone else just…disgusts me," he added.

She stared at him for a moment before letting out a little gasp of relief. "Oh, Neville! That's so sweet!" she cried suddenly, throwing her arms around him and tackling him in a hug.

His eyes popped out of his head, and before he had a chance to hug her back, she pulled away, leaving him feeling extremely disappointed. "The fact that you feel so sorry for all the victims of the curse, and you got so…EMOTIONAL over it is just…the sweetest thing ever," she explained with a smile. "It's so cute!"

Cute? CUTE! That was the only word Neville registered from that sentence. He blushed and felt himself grinning like a loon. "Really?" he asked her.

She nodded. "Of course it was! You're so compassionate," she said with another grin. As he chuckled sheepishly, she looked down at her brand new watch and gasped. "Oh, I'm late for Arithmancy!" she cried.

She jumped up and gave him another hug, and this time he was able to hug her back before she pulled away. "I'll see you later, alright?" she asked before ruffling his hair playfully and walking out of the hall.

He turned and watched her walk out of the hall, once again finding himself staring at her retreating backside. Why did she have to go? He found himself wishing that she was still here, hugging him—he had gotten a good whiff of that perfume before she left and it made him feel all tingly inside.

A moment later, he felt ashamed of himself again. He had told himself that he would stop thinking about her like that, and those thoughts kept creeping up on him. He shook his head and stood up from the Hufflepuff table before walking back to his own.

If this didn't stop soon, he'd be in some really deep shite…that was certain.

* * *

Hannah was hugging him on the couch in the common room—how she had gotten in there, he had no idea. Maybe she had gotten the password from someone else? Ahh, it was not the most important thing right now. As she pulled away from him, she kissed him on the cheek and he felt his skin turn how where her lips made contact.

"Oh Neville," she sighed in his ear, her lips moving closer and closer to his own until she brushed them softly with hers, and before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing her mouth against his.

Rather than gasp in surprise, she groaned and kissed him back, tongue poking through his lips immediately and brushing his own. Sure, he had never kissed a girl before but he was quite certain he was doing amazingly well for his first time…she grabbed his hands with hers and guided them under her shirt, and when he lightly brushed his hand over her bra, he groaned against her lips and felt a rush of heat travel down to his groan…

CRASH!

"AHHHHHHH!"

Neville shot up in his bed, looking around in panic for the source of the noise. Seamus was on the ground, having clearly just stumbled over the trunk in front of his bed. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was—in his bed, under his covers, and completely alone. No Hannah anywhere.

All that was real was the embarrassing excitement between his legs. Lovely.

"Seamus, what the bloody hell are you doing?" Ron asked, sitting up in bed looking just as startled as Neville.

"Sorry, the lights were all out and I didn't want to startle anyone!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms as he stood up. Neville still sat awkwardly in his bed, trying to think desperately of something to calm himself down. He could only stay bundled up in his blankets, hiding everything, for so long.

"What were you even doing out?" Dean demanded.

"None of your business," Seamus snapped before turning and walking over to his bed, moodily grabbing the covers and burying his head in them. Clearly, his little temper tantrum meant that he had been off snogging Lavender somewhere.

The boys all grumbled in annoyance before going back to sleep, and Neville had finally managed to get rid of that little nuisance that had been bothering him. Now that all of that was settled, he was free to reflect on the dream he had just had.

Even though it was just a dream (and a very vivid one at that) he knew exactly what it meant. Any idiot could have figured it out. The pleasure that he had felt, even if it wasn't a real situation, had definitely been REAL. The butterflies in his stomach, and the tingly feeling that was still lingering on his lips, and the most obvious sign down south were all clear cut signs that he cared for her. He cared for her deeply…and he was past the point of being able to deny it. In fact—he didn't WANT to deny it. He wanted his dream to be become a reality, to be the real thing and just hold Hannah in his arms. As a boyfriend, not just a friend.

But now that he had admitted it to himself, he was faced with a ton of different problems. For example, what was he supposed to do about it now? Tell her? Or just keep it hidden for a while? Or perhaps he could just wait a while and see what happened?

There were so many decisions to make! And they were making his head hurt. He grabbed his pillow and threw his face into it, groaning slightly.

"Damn," he muttered before closing his eyes and attempting to go back to sleep.

* * *

"Neville, you stupid sod!" Dean cried, "Just ask her already!"

Neville twisted the piece of parchment in his hands again. He knew he wanted to ask Hannah, he was just afraid of whether she would say yes or not. He knew that a little rejection was just a natural part of dating, but she was his best girl mate on the planet. What if their friendship couldn't survive?

The other part of Neville's brain, the fearless part that hardly ever showed itself, was yelling at him to get a bloody move on, because with a body that beautiful, Hannah was sure to get asked right away.

Ever since he had heard about the Yule Ball, he had been thinking of asking her. Sure, he had been afraid of messing everything up between them, but it was just a dance and he could easily pass it off as a platonic date, right? Of course! And if things were going well at the dance, he could ask her if she wanted more than just a friendship. He had been building it up in his mind for days, and now he finally had to do it. That was the scary part.

That was why Dean and Neville were standing outside the Arithmancy room, waiting for her to come out so he could ask her before lunch. Dean agreed to come along for support, which made Neville just a bit more jittery than usual, and as the bell rang, he held his breath and waited for her to come out.

He saw her exit the room with Ernie, and as they said goodbye, she was grinning like an idiot. Once she spotted him, she smiled even wider and hurried over to him, giggling like a little girl.

"Neville, guess what?" she cried.

She didn't even wait for him to answer.

"Ernie asked me to the ball!" she cried with happiness.

A few feet away, Dean gave him an _I-told-you-so_ look, which Neville chose to ignore.

"Really?" he croaked, trying as hard as possible to keep his voice normal. "That's-that's great!" he said finally, trying to enjoy the moment with her.

"Who are you going to ask?" she asked him.

"I was, well…" he stammered. He had to think of an answer, and fast. Suddenly, Hermione walked out of the classroom, as if she was an answer to his prayers. She waved at them before walking down the corridor and out of sight.

"Hermione. I'm asking Hermione," he replied.

"Really? That's so great!" Hannah exclaimed. "I didn't know you were still sweet on her!"

Neville blushed, "Actually, I was thinking, just as friends, you know…"

"Well, as long as she gets to go," Hannah giggled.

She smiled and suddenly flung her arms around him. Neville staggered back a few steps in surprise before finally thinking to hug her back. When she was this close to him, he could smell her perfume again. Her raspberry scented perfume filled his nostrils. She smelled so good…so earthy…

He ended the hug before he got too carried away. There was already a strange feeling in his trousers, and he knew EXACTLY what that meant.

"I have to go tell Susan!" Hanna squealed, and she darted down the hall towards the basement dormitories.

Neville watched her go, feeling all hope and excitement about Christmas drain through his body. Dean waited a few minutes before saying something.

"I'm not going to say anything, but you just should have…"

"I know," Neville sighed as he turned to go toward the Great Hall, "I know."


	7. Excuses

_Hello all. Do you remember me? I'm SOOOO sorry about my long hiatus that I took. I've just been SOOO busy with school, and I've had horrible writers block __But, good news—I'm back! For now at least. Have faith in me…I WILL finish this story, even if it takes a while to get out updates. It's my baby and I'm not ready to abandon it yet!_

* * *

"Where is Ginny?" Neville asked for the tenth time, looking around anxiously as Lavender fussed to Seamus about her hair and Dean rolled his eyes.

"For the last time, we don't know!" Lisa Turpin, Dean's date, said to him as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. Neville sighed and looked around at all the people who had arrived in the last few minutes. Ron and Harry were nearby with the Patil twins and—good Merlin, WHAT was Ron WEARING? Neville's eyes lingered just a few seconds longer on Fleur Delacour and felt a surge of jealously when he saw Roger Davies give her a hug from behind before shaking his head. No…he would NOT allow himself to be like every other boy in school and oogle over Fleur. He wouldn't let it happen.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he turned to see Hannah walking into the entrance hall. She had a sea blue dress on that hugged her body until it hit mid-thigh, where it flowed down to the floor in elegant strips of cloth, making her look like a stunning mermaid. Her blonde hair was up in a bun, so her shoulders were completely exposed except for the two skinny straps holding her dress up. The whole thing was covered in those sparkley bits, which hit the light with every movement she made. It clung to her in all the right places and…

His daydreams ended abruptly when she hooked her arm with Ernie's, and Neville found himself even more jealous of him than he had been of Roger. He still cursed himself for not asking her to the dance sooner, and letting her fall into Ernie's grasp. She walked by and she waved at him, and after gawking at her for a few seconds, he waved back, watching her retreat into the hall with Ernie.

A few moments later, Ginny finally came down, going on and on about some beauty potion and something that had to do with Hermione's hair, but Neville wasn't really listening. After seeing Hannah looking so stunning and radiant…well, he just couldn't stop regretting the fact that he hadn't asked her in time.

Still, that wasn't Ginny's fault, and he vowed to try and give her the best Yule Ball he possibly could. Once people started dancing, she asked him if he would like to, and although his brain was reminding him that he was BOUND to make a fool of himself, he did so anyways. He apologized over and over again afterwards as she limped off the dance floor—there was no use lying to himself, he was just not very graceful.

"I'm sorry Ginny…I swear, it's my feet, they're far too big for my gangly body…"

"Oh Neville, don't worry about it!" Ginny giggled, even as she rubbed her foot. Neville let out a sigh of relief as she said that—he had definitely made the right choice in taking her to the ball. She was super nice…maybe if things didn't ever work out with Hannah, he could start something up with her.

No, Ron will KILL you. Besides, stop doubting yourself with Hannah before you even try! She'd want you to think like that.

"Neville?"

Someone had come up behind him, making him jump just a bit. He turned and saw that Hannah had come up behind him, smiling at him and—without Ernie.

"Oh! Hey Hannah!" he said, his voice getting just a bit higher as he spoke. "Erm…you've met Ginny, Ron's sister, right?" he asked.

Hannah nodded and giggled. "Yeah, we have. Hi Ginny! You look lovely tonight!"

"Thanks!" Ginny said with a grin. She looked around awkwardly for a few minutes before turning back to Neville. "I'll leave you two to chat…Michael Corner asked me if I'd save him a dance," she explained. As she left, Neville could have sworn she gave him a bit of a knowing glance before she left. Oh Merlin, he hoped not—the LAST thing he needed was someone else knowing about his crush on Hannah.

"Well, you look dashing, Mr. Longbottom," she told him with a little chuckle. Neville blushed and looked down at his feet.

"Thanks…you look stunning," he replied, feeling his face heat up even more. She blushed as well and chuckled.

"Thank you," she said quietly. He looked up at her and saw that she was smiling and biting her lip. That was…good, right?

"Are you having fun?" he asked, clearing his throat and trying to will his blushing cheeks to cool down. He sort of hoped she would say no—it would calm him down so much to know that Ernie was a rubbish date.

"Yeah, how about you?"

Damn.

"Yeah, I'm having a great time! Except the dancing bit…I'm afraid I'm not very graceful," Neville admitted with a small laugh. She giggled as well, and Neville wasn't sure where to go with the conversation next. Part of him wanted to joke and laugh with her like normal but, things weren't normal. She was on a date. With Ernie. He felt like he was intruding on something private.

"I'm sure you're graceful! You just haven't practiced! If it makes you feel any better, Ernie keeps stepping on my feet too and he almost tore my dress," she told him. "But don't tell him I told you that!" she added with a grin.

That DID make him feel better. He could care less that Ernie couldn't dance like him, but at least now he knew that Ernie was messing things up. THAT made him cheer up a bit.

"Where is Ernie?" he asked, looking around to try and find where he was. They had been talking for a while now and he was surprised that the blonde Hufflepuff hadn't come to reclaim Hannah yet.

She bit her lip. "In the bathroom…I think he's sick. It must have been something he ate," she muttered, looking considerably downcast. Neville felt horrible as he stared at her—he didn't want Hannah to look like that. EVER. Just the fact that she was hurting physically hurt _him._

"Aww, cheer up, I'm sure he'll be out soon," he assured her. He saw her smile and, sure enough, as soon as he said that, Ernie appeared in the crowd, heading over towards them.

He should have just kept his mouth shut!

"There you are, Hannah!" he exclaimed, coming up behind her and kissing her on the cheek. Neville blinked and was suddenly overcome with the urge to punch him. "Watching over her for me, Longbottom?" he asked with a chuckle.

Neville couldn't bring himself to answer, and could only bring himself to nod.

At that moment, Ginny reappeared, and Neville assumed she had finished her dance with Michael.

"Ahh, hello Ginny! You look very pretty today," Ernie said. "Shall we go then, darling?" he asked.

Neville felt like his heart was sinking into his stomach. _Darling._ She was his _darling_ now. Did that really mean what he thought it meant? He had thought they were just going to the dance together…had it somehow progressed into something else?

Judging by the glow on Hannah's face when he called her that, he guessed it had.

"Yes…have fun Neville! And Ginny!" Hannah said happily, entwining her hand with Ernie's as they headed off to the dance floor again.

It was silent for a few moments before Ginny finally spoke up. "I'm sorry Neville."

He blinked and looked over at her. "Sorry for…what?" he asked. Oh Merlin, he had been right, she HAD caught on to his little secret!

"I'm sorry you have to watch them together. It's obvious you fancy her."

Neville gulped. His first instinct was to deny it—he had no idea what she was talking about. Yeah, that could work! He could try and convince her she was nuts, and she was seeing signals that weren't really there…

But that would be no good. Ginny knew that he liked Hannah and he was sure that, no matter how much he tried to convince her that she was wrong, she'd know he was lying.

He sighed. "Is it THAT obvious?" he asked.

To his surprise, she shook her head. "Nah, it wasn't until just now…you looked like a sad puppy when you watched her walk away with him. Don't worry though, I don't think anyone else was watching," she assured him with a soft smile.

That made him feel a teensy bit better. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" he asked.

"Of course not!" she exclaimed, as if she were insulted that he would even ask a question like that. "I'll take it to the grave, Longbottom. I'm prepared to make the Unbreakable Vow," she told him with a grin.

He laughed. "Ok, I get it," he told her with a smile. He was starting to feel better about the whole situation now—sure, it still sucked, but the least he could do right now was cheer up for Ginny's sake. She deserved to have fun at the Yule Ball, and just because Ernie and Hannah were together at the moment didn't mean that he couldn't have time too.

"You just have to be patient, Neville. You'll get your chance," she added.

He nodded. They were only in fourth year…and for all he knew this could just be a passing thing. He had a crush on her now, but did that mean he'd have a crush on her in a few years? Not necessarily! He didn't have a crush on Hermione anymore, so who was to say that he'd be hooked on Hannah forever?

He would just…let it happen the way it was supposed to happen. He couldn't let himself stress about those two all the time—he'd go mad and end up pulling out his own hair.

"Come on, let's go dance," he said finally, grabbing Ginny's arm and pulling her out to the dance floor. This time, he would NOT step on her feet.

Much.

* * *

He hadn't seen her since that night. Most of the Hufflepuffs had taken to staying in their common room. They could comfort each other there.

There were millions of thoughts going through Neville's mind. The first one was wondering if Harry was telling the truth—had You-Know-Who really come back? He was sure that he had…Harry wouldn't lie about that. Now that he was back, what was going to come next? Mass chaos? Killings in the street? Neville's mind was reeling with horrible outcomes to this situation.

Then, he was just as worried about Hannah. Cedric had been very popular in that house and friends with lots of people…she hadn't taken the news well. He remembered all too clearly the look she had on her face when Harry first appeared with his body, and he had also noticed her sobbing at the funeral, along with all the other Hufflepuffs. He would feel so much better if he could just hold in his arms and let her cry there—to remind her that it would be ok, and he was always going to be there to protect her…

He finally got his chance on the ride home. Ernie, Justin, and Susan had all spread out, seeking refuge with other Hufflepuff students or their friends from other houses, which was something Neville found to be a bit strange. He had thought they would all be huddled together in one compartment. The more he thought about it, however, the more he figured they all wanted to grieve in their own ways, and that might have meant finding friends to surround themselves with.

Poor Hannah was all by herself, napping in a compartment when he found her. He quietly opened the door and slipped in, and the sound of his arrival awoke her.

"Oh, Neville! It's just you," she muttered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, which were puffy and red.

"Yeah. How are you?" he asked right away. He sat down next to her, rather than across from her, just in case she wanted a shoulder to cry on.

"Alright…been better," she said softly, pushing a piece of blonde hair out of her eyes.

"How are you…well, how are you dealing with everything that's happened?" he asked her. He was sure that, because she had been much closer with Cedric than he had (he wasn't even sure he had ever spoken to the dude) he felt that she would definitely be feeling more emotions than he was right now.

She didn't answer for a while. Her eyes started to fill up with tears and she looked at the shoelaces of her trainers. "I don't know. Obviously, I'm so sad that Cedric is gone, when he had so much more he was going to accomplish but…mostly I'm scared," she admitted as a tear dripped down her cheek.

Unsure of what to do, Neville reached out and touched her hand gently with his. "What do you mean?" he asked. He kind of figured she was talking about You-Know-Who but…there was something else. Something else she was afraid of.

The tears started coming more steadily now. "Well, You-Know-Who has always been against muggleborns…and I'm half muggle! What if they come after my family? What if they come after me?" she questioned, her voice breaking into sobs as she finally admitted what was troubling her so much. In an instant, she had launched herself onto him, burying her face in his shoulder. Blinking at her sudden movement, he blindly patted her back as he let her cry into his jumper.

"Hannah, shhh, it's ok…" he said. He couldn't think of anything else to say to her.

"How do you know?" she demanded, pulling away and looking at him with a tear streaked face. "You saw how easily they just killed Cedric, that could be ANY of us," she said.

"Hannah, don't talk like that!" Neville insisted. It pained him to see her that depressed over this. "When we get back to school, we'll be in Hogwarts, the safest place in—"

"But what about now? What if they attack me or my family this summer?" she demanded.

"Damnit Hannah, what do you want me to do?" he asked, standing up in anger. His annoyance with her had finally gotten the best of him, and he certainly didn't MEAN to shout at her like that. It had just…happened.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair and she stared up at him in shock. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it's just…I want to sit here and tell you it will all be ok, but like you said—what do I know?"

He sat back down, staring at the opposite wall of the compartment rather than look at her. He felt her shift so that her head was resting on his shoulder.

"You're scared too, aren't you?" she asked softly.

He didn't respond. To his surprise he heard her chuckle next to him. "You can say yes you know, it's only me—Dean and Seamus aren't here."

He felt his lips form a small smile and he sat up, causing her to sit up as well and look at him face to face once more. "Yeah, a bit. I mean—none of us were old enough to remember what happened the last time he was in power. I have no idea what's going to happen next," he muttered.

She nodded. "It's the uncertainty…that's what's driving me crazy. It would all just be so much easier if we knew what to expect. Then again, I don't want to know, because I can only imagine horrible things ahead…"

Her voice started breaking again, and her eyes clouded with tears once more. Wordlessly, Neville put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder once more, and suddenly a strange thought occurred to him.

Where the fuck was ERNIE? Wasn't HE supposed to be the one comforting her right now? He had seen her with Susan and Justin in a compartment with a few Ravenclaws, and yet Hannah was here, all alone, with her boyfriend nowhere to be found.

"Have you talked to Ernie about this? And Susan?" he asked. Surely she would have confided this information in her best friends, right?

She nodded. "Yeah…Susan was worried sick over it too, but she refused to talk about it. I think she thinks if she acknowledges it, it will all just go away. And Ernie…" he heard her hesitate. "He said not to worry. It would all blow over. You-Know-Who has no followers and he assured me it would be much more difficult for him to gain power than before, and I have nothing to worry about right now."

Neville was in shock. Nothing to worry about right now? Ernie was officially the world's worst advice giver. Was he really that dumb? Neville had always thought Ernie was a relatively bright fellow—except for that one time in second year when he thought Harry was a psychotic murderer—but after what he told Hannah…it was unbelievable.

He was officially the worst boyfriend ever. Well, in Neville's book at least.

He could tell from the tone of voice she was using that she was not at all comforted by her boyfriend's words. Neville was dying to tell her how he felt, just to prove that he would totally be a better boyfriend that Ernie, but he kept his mouth shut. He couldn't tell her—not now. He had no idea how she felt about him, and they were too connected right now to break up this friendship over a small little confession. It was not the time.

"Come on, let's go find some other people. I'm sure Dean and Seamus will cheer you up," he said with a smile. She wiped her eyes and nodded, sitting up as he stood up to stretch.

"And…don't worry about You-Know-Who. I mean…well, you SHOULD probably worry about him a bit but, don't go nutters over it, ok?" he said, biting his lip. He felt that he needed to at least give her some advice after the bullshit Ernie had fed her. "Just use your common sense, ok? Lock your doors, don't go out at night alone, just…usual stuff."

That was what his gran was always telling him!

She smiled. "That's the best advice I've gotten all day," she said with a small chuckle. Neville felt his heart skip a beat when she said that. He had achieved exactly what he wanted to do—give her good ADVICE. Something Ernie had failed at.

"Let's go find them," he said, beckoning for her to follow him.

As he left the compartment, he was glad that he hadn't acted upon that rash action to tell her how he felt about her. She was with Ernie, and until she wasn't, he had no right in confessing his feelings to her. It would just confuse her, and it wouldn't be fair. Plus, it could ruin their friendship, and he wasn't ready to give that up at all. He was sure that, if he kept waiting it out, one of two things would happen—Ernie and Hannah would break up eventually and he could make his move then, or his feelings for her would fizzle out.

He wanted to know how SHE felt about HIM too, before saying anything. Every day he'd look in the mirror and wonder what on Earth someone like her could possibly find attracted in someone like him. His stupid long limbs? Not likely. His ears which stuck out at an odd angle? Definitely not.

As they finally approached the carriage with Dean and Seamus, a sickening realization finally dawned on Neville.

He was making excuses. A hell of a lot of them. As long as he kept doing that—there was no shot in hell that he was EVER going to end up with her. Ever.

Maybe it would just be better to throw in the towel now and let Ernie have her. Forever.


	8. Uprising and Downfall

Neville spent a lot of time brooding that summer. Ever since he realized on the train that he kept coming up with reasons NOT to tell Hannah how he felt about her, he hadn't felt like doing much of anything. His gran kept telling his relatives he was sick whenever they came over, and that was just fine with him—he'd much rather be in the garden or in his room rather than have to listen to their questions.

What if Ernie and Hannah never broke up? What if they just stayed together forever and had lots of blonde babies together? GAH he hated thinking about that. It was a totally real possibility though—Ernie was being a rubbish boyfriend and he didn't even seem to realize it. If Hannah wasn't breaking up with him now, when would she?

He tried to stay positive, and convince himself that if he was just patient, his time would come. He couldn't keep telling himself to be patient anymore, though. It was driving him mad. How patient would he have to be before he saw any progress?

His thoughts were becoming his own worst enemy.

HANNAH was becoming his worst enemy. Last year he had struggled with his feelings for her—sometimes he was successful in ignoring them, and other times they wouldn't go away—and now they didn't EVER go away. The more he realized this, the more distressed he became. She wasn't even THERE and yet she was driving him mad, and he was falling harder than ever before.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere—complications arose.

He had definitely not seen it coming. The first time he saw her, romance was the last thing on his mind. As he entered her compartment that day, the first thing he wanted to do was turn on his heel and get the hell out of there, because the girl sitting in there had to be on something.

During the first month of school, however, she'd approach him in the halls and start up a conversation—most of the time, it had to do with creatures whose names Neville couldn't remember, and other things that were most definitely made up—but when Ginny suggested one day that Luna Lovegood definitely fancied Neville, his opinion of her changed.

Now he was faced with a whole new set of problems.

Neville had never had anyone fancy him before. For most of his life, he was used to being ignored, and even to this day when people were nice to him, he always felt paranoid that at any moment they'd yell out "HAHA got you!" and pull some horrible prank on him. All those jokes that Malfoy had pulled on him over the years had really taken a toll on him.

It made his head hurt. Every time he saw Luna, his heart skipped a beat now. SHE actually fancied HIM. Sure, she was a little—odd, and not exactly how he had pictured his first girlfriend, but she was nice and funny and…she fancied HIM.

But then, every time he saw Hannah, his breath caught in his throat and his heart began to race. She had grown even more over the summer, and she was starting to progress past that awkward teenager stage (something that he, unfortunately, was still stuck in) and she seemed even more beautiful every time he saw her. He'd never felt that way about anybody before, and it was agonizing for him to watch her with Ernie every day.

He didn't know what to do. On the one hand, part of him wanted to just keep waiting, to keep pining after Hannah until he finally had his chance…and then the other part wondered if that would ever happen. Was he supposed to just let someone else pass him by, just because he was waiting for something that might never happen?

In order to deal with this intense internal struggle, Neville took to screaming into his pillow every once in a while when no one else was around. It relieved his stress for about ten minutes, because on top of his issues with _women,_ there was everything ELSE going on around him that he had to deal with.

First off, Umbridge was the biggest loon to ever walk the Earth. Plus she was just plain MEAN. Who had ever heard of practicing defense without using magic? It was his OWL year and he was already stressed out with everything else as it was—the last thing he needed was to worry about how he was going to pass his Defense OWL without a lick of practical practice before hand.

Luckily, Harry apparently had a plan for that—HE was going to teach them. Normally Neville was really cautious when it came to breaking the rules, but he'd make an exception for that old toad Umbridge. After all, his grades were at stake, as well as his livelihood—You-Know-Who was out there and every seemed to be in denial!

As he walked back from the pub that day, he heard someone crunching in the snow behind him.

"Hey there stranger!" Hannah said as she came up behind him. Neville smiled but couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. In an effort to try and calm the raging thoughts in his brain right now, he had been avoiding her JUST a bit, to try and make it easier on himself.

Unfortunately, he was just as confused as he had been before, but without the added delight of seeing Hannah every day.

"Hey there Miss Prefect," he replied with a grin. She blushed and reached a hand up to her badge, lovingly polishing it with her finger before looking back him.

"So, are we really going to do this, then? I mean…go behind Umbridge and all that?"

"I guess so."

She laughed awkwardly, and he got the sinking suspicion that she was starting to doubt her decision now. Hannah was never really one to ever go against the rules—hell, it had taken her three years just to change her hairstyle. She wasn't exactly an impulsive person.

"You ok?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

She nodded. "I'm just…well, I can't help thinking about what MIGHT happen if we get caught…"

Neville understood. He had been thinking about that for a while too, but those thoughts had disappeared quickly. For some reason, he just didn't care.

"To be honest, I really don't care if we get caught. I'd like to see her try and catch us," Neville mumbled. Wow. That even surprised him.

Her eyes widened. "Where did THAT come from?" she asked, a small smile forming on her lips.

He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. I guess there's just so much more at stake if we DON'T do this," he explained. "I mean, if we get caught, what's the worst they can do? Dock some points and throw us in detention? If we don't go through with this, we'll be unprepared for our OWLs, and more importantly, we won't be prepared when You-Know-Who comes back at full force."

She looked at him and grinned. "You've definitely come a long way from the first year who was all shaken up over fifty lousy house points," she teased him.

Neville felt his cheeks heat up. He was just about to try and retort with a fancy remark about how embarrassing her younger self was—he had been planning on going with a joke about the pigtails—when Luna came up behind them.

"Hello Neville! And hello Neville's friend," she said happily.

"Oh…hi Luna," Neville said in reply. Oh my. This was an awkward situation. The girl who fancied him was standing next to him, and on the other side, the girl that Neville was madly infatuated with was walking along as well, looking at Luna's radish earrings in interest.

"Hannah, this is Luna Lovegood," he said finally, stepping out of the way so he could properly introduce them.

"It's very nice to meet you," Luna said, shaking Hannah's hand with a smile. "I have to go, I'm afraid someone has taken my Arithmancy book as a joke and I really need to get it back…but Neville, the next time you're free I have to tell you some more about wrackspurts. So you can adequately prepare yourself once spring comes—that's when they like to infest themselves in people's ears," she told him. "Goodbye!" she said, waving at both of them before skipping ahead of them and up to the castle.

Hannah was biting her lip, obviously trying not to laugh. "She seems nice."

Neville nodded. "Yeah, she is," he replied. As they walked along, listening to their boots make a crunching noise as they walked through the snow, Neville wondered if he should tell her about Luna and her supposed crush on him. Usually he talked about girl problems with Ginny (since she was the only one who still knew about his true feelings for Hannah) but he was somewhat curious as to what she had to say on the matter. After a few moments of silence, he made up his mind.

"According to Ginny, she fancies me," he said with a small chuckle, almost as if he found the idea absurd. Which he did, a bit. He was still getting used to the fact that someone was interested in him.

Hannah's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked. Apparently, the idea was absurd to her too. When she realized how her tone had come across, she bit her lip.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that…she just seems a bit odd, is all. What about you?" she asked. "How do you feel about her?"

There was something cold in her tone. Almost as if she was accusing him of something. "I'm not sure. I mean, she's nice and all, and I'm quite flattered that she chose me…she could have easily picked Ron or Harry…" he said, his voice trailing off.

The truth was, though, that he wasn't attracted to Luna in that way at all. She was a great person to talk to and he could see her being his friend for a while, but could he really see himself being in a relationship with her?

Hannah looked downcast for some reason. "So, are you going to ask her out?" she asked, almost in a demanding sort of voice.

Neville blinked. "Well, I'm not sure…do…do you THINK I should ask her out?" he asked.

She bit her lip before finally answering. "If it makes you happy, I think you should go for it." She replied. She wasn't smiling.

Neville felt his heart sink considerably as she said that. So, she really thought it was a good idea for him to go after Luna? Neville should have known. There was no way that someone as amazing as Hannah would be interested in a nerd like himself. He had hoped that, just for a moment, she'd get all upset and tell him that he SHOULDN'T be with Luna, and that she was wrong to be with Ernie and now that she was in danger of losing him, she had realized she had made a mistake and then she'd do something incredibly romantic like throw herself at him right away.

But no. That was not how things were turning out. Clearly, he had just wasted his time swooning over her.

"I think I will," he said quietly. Luna deserved to have him give her a chance, right?

Still, she wasn't _Hannah._

They had finally reached the castle, and Neville plastered a smile on his face. "Well, I'm excited."

She blinked and looked at him. "About…about asking out Luna?"

Neville blushed. "No, I meant…about the meetings. I'm excited to get started on the meetings," he said, keeping his voice low just in case there were any Slytherins hanging about.

"Oh! Oh, right…yes, me too!" she said quickly. For some reason, her face was blushing.

After a few more moments of silence, she started to turn on her heel. "Well, I'm going to get going…I'm exhausted, I think I'll take a nap," she said with a soft chuckle.

She smiled. "Alright, bye! Have a nice nap," he said, watching her walk down the corridor towards the kitchen.

For some reason, Neville felt that, as he watched her walk away, he was watching her walk out of her life.


	9. First Kiss

They never actually got around to going on a real date. Not that Neville didn't want to—Luna was just not a very…traditional…type of girl. She said that shops like Madam Puddifoots put dried up Wrackspurts into the coffee to make people get all loopy and that was why couples always acted so weird around each other, and she said she wanted to go to the Room of Requirement and make her own tea for him instead.

Not necessarily an ordinary first date, but he'd take it.

They snuck off to the room during one of the Hogsmeade weekends, and the room magically provided all the equipment she needed to make the tea. As she prepared it for him, Neville couldn't help but let his thoughts wander to Hannah and Ernie. He knew that they were out today celebrating Valentine's Day, and even though he was trying to move on and accept that fact that she was just NOT into him, he couldn't help but hurt a bit inside as he thought of them. Even though he still considered her a great friend, he just couldn't get over his little crush on her. What was WRONG with him? Hadn't she made her feelings totally clear to him? It was obvious that he had no chance with her…he just needed to accept that and move on.

Yet, he KNEW he couldn't force himself to like Luna if he really didn't. That was what dating was for though, right? To figure out if you liked someone? All he could do was hang out with her some more, and hope that things would eventually blossom into a romance.

"Neville?"

"Hmm?" he said, looking up and blinking. He hadn't realized that he had been spacing off.

"I just said the tea was done. What were you looking at? Did you see a Nargle?" she asked, grabbing her butterbeer necklace protectively. "There are still a ton of them hiding in this room because of all that mistletoe Harry put up," she explained.

He shook his head and stood up. Instantly, a table sprouted from the floor a few feet away, with two wooden chairs on either side for them to sit down. Luna was humming to herself, and she sat down in the left chair and began to pour the tea into the two teacups that had appeared just moments before.

"No, no Nargles…at least, none that I can see," he said with a small chuckle. He had long ago learned that it was best to just go along with Luna's made up creatures. Although, for all he knew, they weren't made up. Chances were they were, though, but he wasn't about to shatter her beliefs like that. She wasn't hurting anyone with it, so why not let her believe it?

She nodded. "Yes, if it did suspect you saw it, it probably would have gone invisible before you really got a good look at it. They tend to do that," she explained.

Neville smiled and took a sip of his tea. It was delicious and warmed him up a bit—the Room of Requirement was awfully chilly, and Neville really wished he had brought a sweater along with him.

"I've noticed that you've been improving a lot at the DA meetings," she said suddenly.

"Oh, you have?" he asked, blinking a bit in shock. He knew that he had been doing a lot better, especially with the defensive spells, but he didn't think anyone but Harry had been paying any attention. He had been secretly hoping that Hannah had been watching, but he seriously doubted she had been.

She nodded. "Yes, I think it's been fascinating to watch you progress. I think I knew the second I met you that you just needed to believe in yourself to accomplish great things."

Neville felt himself blush. As his cheeks turned beet red, he also couldn't ignore the tiny stab of pain in his heart—that was almost exactly what Hannah had been telling him since their first year. She was always there, always encouraging him even when things were rough…

No, he needed to stop this. He needed to push her out of his mind. He was with Luna now, and his thoughts should NOT be with Hannah.

"You really thought that?" he asked.

She nodded. "Of course. I could just tell."

Neville chuckled and drank a bit more of his tea. Part of him wondered if she could "just tell" that he fancied Hannah as well. He hoped that she couldn't—he'd feel extremely guilty. Luna was actually a really cool girl, and the more he was getting to know her, the more he could picture himself being with her. She was really sweet, and they seemed like they would be the perfect match…after all, both of them were generally outcasts and always the butt of the joke, and it just made sense that they would be together.

Still, he was trying desperately to ignore the nagging voice in the back of his head. _Sure, she's pretty and all and she has a great personality…but she isn't HER…_

He felt horrible about the fact that, every time Luna encouraged him or complimented his progress, he thought of Hannah. It wasn't fair to her.

Thankfully, Luna suddenly changed the subject and distracted him from his internal struggle for just a bit.

"Did you know that the Crumple-Horned Snorkack likes to eat Flutterby Bushes?"

* * *

Neville and Luna spent a good three hours talking about all sorts of things—she told him a bit about her childhood and he told her a bit about his wild upbringing as well, and he could slowly feel them bonding. For the first time in a long time, he felt like he had a chance of being happy—without Hannah.

As they finished their tea and got ready to leave, Luna blurted something out that Neville really should have been expecting. Still, that didn't stop him from being thrown off guard and turning into a blundering idiot immediately.

"Are you going to kiss me?"

He was so taken aback, that he dropped the tea cup that he had just emptied, watching the elegant china shattered into pieces as it hit the ground. KISS her? Oh good Merlin, that time had come, and he was not at all prepared for it…maybe he had heard her wrong?

"K-kiss you?" he asked, noting all too clearly how high his voice sounded when he spoke.

She nodded. "Yes. I wasn't sure, since some boys wait until the second date, or the third date, even the fourth date to initiate the first kiss. So I figured I'd ask."

Merlin, she was a bold girl. Neville bit his lip, and he could feel his hands becoming sweaty as his heart rate sped up. GROSS. The last thing Neville needed right now were sweaty hands.

"Well, I…uh…I mean…did you want me to kiss you?" he asked. _What a stupid question, Longbottom! Of course she does! If she fancies you, she obviously wants to snog you. Use your head!_

She chuckled. "Yes. I suppose so. I have to admit I am curious."

_Curious about WHAT?_ Neville wanted to blurt out. He was shaking now. For whatever reason, he hadn't anticipated having to kiss her, and he had NEVER kissed a girl before, so he was certain he would be absolutely rubbish at it. What if she didn't like kissing him? What if he could never become a good snogger? What if he was just doomed and he was never going to be a fabulous kisser?

Still, he needed to have his first kiss sometime, right? He could almost hear Hannah in the back of his head, encouraging him and urging him onward. _Come on Longbottom,_ she'd say, _You can't be scared to try new things all the time! I know you can do it—you're defying Umbridge in the DA, aren't you? This should be a piece of cake!_

Neville mentally scolded himself. _Don't think about Hannah right now! Focus on Luna, she's the one you're about to snog!_

"Erm…ok then," he said awkwardly. He took a few steps towards her, and she started to walk towards him, and once they got close enough, he gently reached out and touched her arm. She smiled and started to stand on her tip-toes, since Neville was considerably taller than she was, and before he knew what was happening, she was getting closer and closer and her lips were just inches from his…

He gently pressed his lips against hers, and he was amazed at how soft her lips were. To his immense relief, she was kissing him back and leaning into it as well, and Neville suddenly began to panic again. What happened next? He knew that tongues were involved but he didn't want to go jamming his tongue into her tiny mouth…what if SHE tried to jam her tongue into HIS mouth? Then what did he do?

Thankfully, he didn't have to worry about it, because the next second, she had broken away from him. He had closed his eyes after the initial contact, and he opened them, looking down at her and examining the look on her face. Had it been good? Why had she stopped? Oh no, he was rubbish, wasn't he? He knew it!

"Hmm."

That was all she said.

After a few seconds of silence passed, Neville couldn't take it anymore.

"Was it…bad?" he asked. Oh god, he was horrible at this, he knew it.

"No, it was fine. It was a lovely kiss, actually," she told him, her blue eyes looking up at him thoughtfully. That was a relief, but now he was confused—what was the problem, then?

"It's just…I thought I would enjoy kissing you more." She said.

Neville blinked in confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, I've always heard that when you kiss someone you're truly meant to be with, there will be a spark of some sort. Or you'll just know right away that they're right for you. It was a fine kiss but I didn't feel anything like that. Did you?" she asked him, her wide eyes examining him.

Neville thought about it, and he realized that she was right—he hadn't really felt anything either. He had been nervous, of course, but when he kissed her, his heart didn't skip a beat, he didn't feel any butterflies in his chest—it just wasn't magical like he thought it was. It was never what he imagined the perfect kiss would be like—the whole thing was just nerves.

"No, I didn't either. Not that it was bad or anything!" he added. He needed to assure her that SHE was a good kisser too, right?

She giggled again. "Well, I suppose we're just meant to be friends then. To be honest, you smell a bit too much like the greenhouses for me."

Neville felt himself laugh out loud at that one, and suddenly a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He had given her a shot, and it just hadn't worked out. Luna was a great girl and he knew that their friendship wouldn't change much after this, and he was thankful for that. Plus, it had been a good experience for him, and probably for her too. Now he would be prepared the next time he went on a date, and the next time he kissed someone.

As they gathered their things, he couldn't help but hope that the next person he'd kiss would be a very specific Hufflepuff.

Just as they left the room, a startling thought occurred to him.

"Oi! Luna! When you say I smell too much like the greenhouses, you don't mean like…manure, do you?"

"Of course not! No, you smell an awful lot like Puffapods, to be honest, and they always did make my nose itch."

* * *

"I'm glad she has the word SNEAK written across her face. She deserves it," Neville grumbled.

It had been a few days since the DA had been busted because of Marietta, but Neville still couldn't get over how horribly the whole thing had played out. He had managed to escape, along with most of the members, before they were discovered, but Harry had gotten caught and that somehow led to Dumbledore fleeing the school. Neville couldn't help but feel a bit guilty—Dumbledore had never actually been involved in the group at all and now, he was on the run, and that lunatic was in charge of the school.

Hannah was usually never one to be cross with anyone, but she too was in a sour mood. "I agree," she mumbled as she took a sip of pumpkin juice.

Neville looked at her in interest. "Are you feeling better?" he asked her curiously.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm fine Neville!" she snapped.

Hannah had been on edge all day. Neville was certain that she was still afraid that Umbridge would somehow find out that she had been involved in the DA and expel her, and the pressure of the upcoming OWL exams did not help matters. She had gone into overdrive, studying relentlessly for the tests that were still months away, and because of this, Neville barely got to talk to her anymore.

Once they got to Herbology that day however, they were faced with the particularly difficult task of repotting newly grown Venomous Tentacula, and she had lost it. She suddenly burst into tears, going on and on about how stupid she was and how she was going to fail her OWLs, and she had to be taken to the hospital wing to get a Calming Draught from Madam Pomfrey. Ernie had escorted her to dinner later that night, after most students had left, and while Ernie left after he was finished, Hannah stayed behind to have some dessert, mainly because Ernie was forcing her to. She told Neville that Ernie insisted the chocolate would make her feel better, and as she explained this, her lips curved into the smallest smile, and Neville felt his heart sink just a bit.

Ever since his date with Luna, Neville had gone back to his old ways—hanging out with Hannah while wishing he could just grab her and snog her senseless. It got worse and worse every time she told him how much he was improving in the DA lessons, and every time he saw Ernie with her, he felt like he was dying a bit inside. He didn't seem to be improving at the boyfriend thing, and yet Hannah was still staying with him, and Neville was forced to do what he had been doing for ages now—waiting.

"I'm sorry, I was just asking," Neville said, biting his lip. She was clearly still in a rubbish mood, despite the Calming Draught.

She sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I keep snapping at everyone…I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel like I've lost it," she grumbled.

"Nah, you're just worried about OWLs. We all are. Seamus is going to pull his hair out trying to find a way to get around those anti-cheating charms on the exams," he said with a small chuckle. This made her giggle as well, and she finally took a bite of her chocolate cake that had been sitting in front of her for the past ten minutes.

"Well, I suppose it's my own fault, studying this early and everything," she muttered. "I think I brought it on myself."

He shrugged. "Maybe you should take a break. A week or two won't kill you—you deserve it. Seriously, especially after these past few days," he said with a small grin.

She smiled and nodded. "I swear, Umbridge is getting worse by the day. I've never seen such a small amount of power go to someone's head so fast," she said with a giggle. "Maybe she's got those…those things flying around in her head…what does Luna call them?"

"Oh, Wrackspurts? Yeah, maybe," Neville laughed. It looked like that Calming Draught was finally starting to take effect. Either that or someone had hit her from behind with a Cheering Charm.

"Speaking of Luna, you never got a chance to tell me how your date went!" she added as she took another bite of her cake. For some reason, Neville felt his heart start to race. He hadn't told her, had he? He hadn't seen her in what felt like forever, since she was either with Ernie or stressing over exams…it had completely slipped his mind.

He felt himself blushing for some unexplainable reason. "Oh well, it wasn't really a date, per say, more like a little get together in the Room of Requirement," he told her. He proceeded to explain to her how they had had tea together in the room, but that was where he left it. He didn't need to go into details about the kiss, right?

"So, did you kiss her?" she asked, a sly grin forming across her face. As Neville watched her smile, he couldn't help but wonder if her lips were as soft as Luna's had been…

He bit his lip and found himself chuckling. "Well, erm…yeah, I did."

She let out an excited little giggle. "Well, how was it?" she asked.

For some reason this question felt exceedingly more complicated than it actually was. Neville wanted to tell her that it had been amazing, to make himself seem like a better kisser than he actually was. He wanted to impress her, and tell her that his first kiss had been fantastic and absolutely nothing could top it. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to fabricate the story that much. Not to her.

"It was…good. It didn't end up working out, though," he added in a hurry. "She said she didn't fancy me quite as much as she thought she did—or, something along those lines. It's fine though, because I don't think I ever fancied her that much either. Not in THAT way, I mean," he explained.

She didn't say anything for a few seconds. She seemed to be chewing on her piece of cake thoughtfully and, after what felt like centuries, she spoke again.

"Well, at least you gave her a shot, right?" she said with a smile. Neville let out a sigh of relief—for some reason he had been dreading her reply. He had been expecting to get scolded, and to have her criticize him for not fancying her. It was a silly fear, though, and he knew it—this was Hannah. She'd never make him feel bad for not being attracted to someone. That wasn't something he could control, right?

Something in her mood seemed to have brightened considerably. "Want some cake? There's a few extra slices…it's REALLY good," she said with a grin.

Neville laughed and reached over to platter where the pieces of cake lay and grabbed himself a slice. "Well, looks like someone is back to their old self, eh?" he teased her with a smile.

She nodded and took another bite of cake before grinning at him. "Never better."


	10. Proud

"I'm such an idiot! I failed that for sure!"

"Hannah calm down, I'm sure you'll be fine, people have panicked in the middle of exams before, I'm sure of it!"

Neville was standing next to Hannah outside the Great Hall, along with Ernie and Susan. There were tear streaks on her face, and she was hiccupping slightly. Neville found it extremely odd that HE was the one telling her to shake it off—it felt like it was just yesterday that HE was the one needing a self-esteem boost.

"He's right Hannah, and besides, you flew through the written portion of the exam," Ernie reminded her. He threw an arm around her and gave her a squeeze, and Neville couldn't help but feel a bit angry. He really wished Susan and Ernie weren't there; it would be so much easier to comfort her alone.

"So? That doesn't mean I aced it!" Hannah exclaimed as another tear dripped down her face.

"I'm just trying to—"

"You know what, Ernie? How about YOU go in there and lose your mind and cast a flock of flamingos in the Great Hall and halt the entire exam and see how YOU feel!" she shouted at him before storming off.

Susan sighed and Ernie rolled his eyes.

"I cannot wait until these bloody exams are over and I get my girlfriend back," Ernie muttered.

"She's just under a lot of pressure!" Neville said, his voice coming out a lot harsher than he intended it to. He bit his lip—the last thing he needed was to start a fight with Ernie. "We all are. She's just worried about how she's doing."

"He's right," Susan said with a head nod. "Hannah has never been one to take pressure well, you know that Ernie."

After a few moments of silence, Neville started to look in the direction that Hannah had just gone.

"I think I'm going to go talk to her," he mumbled.

Ernie snorted. "I think it's best to just let her cool down, Longbottom," he said in reply.

Neville had to physically stop himself from gaping at him. Ernie was such a bloody prat. He was Hannah's boyfriend; it should be HIM going to calm her down, not Neville! He wasn't exactly complaining about that, of course, but still—this was his job, not Neville's. Hannah needed her boyfriend now more than ever and it looked like he wasn't going to be there.

"Well, if she snaps at me and bites my head off, it's my own fault," he retorted.

Ernie sighed. "Good luck with that, then," he grumbled.

Neville rolled his eyes and he saw Susan cast a very dirty look at Ernie before he turned and hurried down the corridor. He found Hannah sulking in the stairs to the dungeons, sniffling with her knees pulled up to her chest.

"Hannah?"

"Go away Neville, I don't want to talk to anyone!" she snapped.

"That's not true, I know it's not," Neville said sternly, sitting down next to her. He didn't care what she said, he wasn't going anywhere.

She shook her head. "No, you don't understand," she mumbled. A few more tears fell down from her eyes, and Neville found his arm going around her and to his surprise, she leaned on his shoulder, wetting his Gryffindor robes with her tears.

"Ernie is such an arse!" she exclaimed.

Neville blinked. He hadn't been expecting THAT. Even though it was obviously true, he hadn't really been sure that Hannah had been aware of it up until this point. It was as if a tiny bubble of hope had suddenly formed, and now Neville wanted to know everything about how she was feeling—was she going to break up with him? Were they going to try and work it out? What had he done wrong, exactly? That information might help him in the future…

"Why do you say that?" he asked, rubbing her back in circles in an attempt to comfort her. He knew there had had to be some underlying reason for Hannah going nuts during the exam. The stress of Ernie being a horrible boyfriend combined with exams must have just pushed her over the edge.

"There are just…so many things," she said softly. Her voice had calmed down a bit more, but the tears were still flowing steadily down her cheeks. "He's always walking around with the bloody badge, acting like HE'S the only prefect that matters—he doesn't even care that we're supposed to be a team, and I just…"

She sighed and sat up, wiping away some of her tears. "I miss the days when we were just friends. It's like he thinks he can say whatever he wants to me without me getting angry or hurt, and I sometimes wonder if he even cares about me," she explained.

While part of Neville was on Cloud 9 right now listening to her talk about what a rubbish boyfriend Ernie was, part of him was also terrified. What was he supposed to say? He was afraid to agree with her—you could never tell with women what their next action would be. What if she suddenly changed in her mind in the middle of the conversation and blew up on him, saying that Ernie was a GREAT boyfriend and how dare he accuse him of being a git?

Wow. He had an overactive imagination, that was for sure.

"Hannah if…if what you're saying is true then you deserve so much more than that," he told her softly.

She rested her head on his shoulder once more, and to his relief he saw that most of the tears had stopped for now. "I don't know what to do," she whispered.

He began to rub her back again. "You don't have to decide on anything right now," he reminded her. He just hoped that, when the time came, she'd end up making the right choice. Which was breaking up with Ernie. Obviously.

"I know," she muttered. He could sense that she was calming down, and after a few moments of silence he even wondered if she had fallen asleep right there on his bony shoulder, when suddenly she sat up and swiftly kissed him on the cheek.

"You're awesome, do you know that?" she said with a small giggle.

Neville's breath caught in his chest when her lips connected with his cheek. He had been right, her lips WERE petal smooth as they touched his rough cheek, and the place where they had made contact seemed to be burning on his face. He momentarily forgot to speak, and he cleared his throat awkwardly before saying anything.

"Oh, erm, thanks. I try," he said with a small laugh. She chuckled and finally stood up.

"Come on, the exam must have started up again…we don't want you missing your practical portion now do we Longbottom?" she asked. As they walked back to the Great Hall, Neville couldn't help but feel proud of himself. She was in a much better mood now, and it had to be because he had been there for her, and been her shoulder to cry on, right?

Even if that wasn't true, he'd continue to think that. It made the butterflies in his stomach go mad.

* * *

"Wow!"

"I know!"

"Wow!"

"Hannah, please say something besides WOW!" Neville exclaimed, laughing as he spoke. He was just so giddy and excited—he couldn't help it!

"But Neville you're in the paper! You're like a hero!" Hannah said with a grin, reading over the article in the Prophet once more.

"Yeah, and I've just counted ten people walking by in the last three minutes to stare in our compartment," Dean added with a wide smile. "You're seriously a fucking legend now, mate."

Neville blushed. "Nah, just watch, in a few weeks it will all blow over and Harry is going to be the only person they think of when they think of the whole ordeal."

Hannah shook her head. "Well, they shouldn't! Didn't you say you were one of the few left standing when it all went down?" she asked.

He chuckled awkwardly. "Erm, yeah, but…that was probably just a fluke or something…"

"Come on Neville, be proud of yourself!" Hannah insisted. She rolled up the newspaper she had in her hands and smacked him on the arm with it. "Can't you just admit that for once you did something right?"

His mouth fell open. "What does THAT mean Abbott? Are you saying I never do anything right?" he asked.

She looked speechless. She blinked for a few times as her cheeks turned beet red. "What? No, I never said that!"

He grinned. "Hannah, I'm joking!" he exclaimed with a laugh. He was just so giddy right now!

Dean burst into laughter and Hannah stared at him in shock for a few minutes before grinning and smacking his arm with her newspaper roll once again. After they calmed down a bit, she leaned back in her chair and looked at the article in the paper again. "How did your Gran take the news?" she asked him.

Neville chuckled. "She's…ecstatic. I'd bet anything that by the time we arrive home, she'll have been interviewed by the papers already. And since my wand broke in the fight, she already told me a get a new one this summer! One that actually works for ME, not my dad," he added with a proud smile. He couldn't help but wonder how that would improve his spellwork—after all, he'd made tremendous progress this year already, so what would happen when he got a wand that was made for him? He could hardly imagine!

Hannah chuckled. "That's great Neville…although I have to admit, even with your dad's wand, your charms weren't too shabby this year!"

"Agreed, Neville," Dean told him with a nod.

"It's a shame you weren't with us earlier…we really could have used you when Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle attacked," Hannah said with a mischievous smile. "They'd be even worse off than they are now if you were there!"

Neville let out a good laugh. He had seen the aftermath of their encounter with some DA members, and it was not a pretty sight. That seemed like a good punishment for them, though. After all, their parents had gotten themselves landed in Azkaban—they didn't need any more humiliation.

They remained silent for a few moments, and Neville decided it was time to go find Harry and the others. After everything that had happened he felt—closer to them. Before Harry, Ron and Hermione had simply been his classmates, but after the ordeal in the Ministry, he felt there was some strange sort of bond that had been formed between the six of them. He, out of all the others in the DA, had gotten a taste of what it was really like to be there in the thick of the fight. He was one of the only ones who really knew how it had felt that night and, every once in a while, he felt the need to be with people who understood that just as well as he did.

"I think I'm going to go find Harry and everyone else. I want to make sure Ron and Hermione are feeling better too," he added. Hermione was STILL taking potions daily, and it was scary to think how close she had actually come to dying.

"Ok," Dean said, pulling a comic book out of his bag. Hannah smiled and waved as he left the compartment, and as he walked towards Harry's carriage, he heard someone get out of the carriage to follow him.

"Neville, wait!" It was Hannah, hurrying after him as he walked through the corridor of the train. He stopped and turned to face her, and only had a second to register that she was running at him before she threw herself into his arms, squeezing him in a gigantic hug. Before he could hug back, she had let go, grinning broadly before kissing him on the cheek.

"I never got the chance to tell you that…well, I'm proud of you, Longbottom," she said in a rushed voice. Her cheeks were heating up, and Neville was almost too shocked to realize it at first. He chuckled after a few moments, though, and gave her a proper hug back in return.

"Thanks Hannah. And erm…thanks for, you know…always telling me I wasn't worthless. I never really believed you up until this," he added with an awkward chuckle. For some reason, this particular moment seemed more…personal than all the other compliments she had given him throughout the years.

"I know you didn't," she confessed with a laugh. He chuckled as well, and finally began to realize that his cheek was burning where she had kissed him. After a few more moments of silence, and a few shoves from people trying to get past them, they were brought back to reality, and Hannah cleared her throat.

"Umm, yes. I just wanted to tell you that, in case I didn't get a chance before we left," she told him with a smile.

"Oh. Well, thanks," Neville responded. With another wave, she bid him goodbye before returning to the compartment with Dean, and Neville finally opened the door to the compartment where Harry and the rest of the gang sat. Everyone seemed to have ignored what had just happened outside their door, but Ginny was smiling at him as he blushed and sat down amongst the group.

As the train chugged on towards Kings Cross, Neville couldn't stop himself from feeling giddy and light headed. He knew perfectly well that he might be looking into this way too much—his brain had trained itself to think like that all the time now—but part of him still had hope. It was a small part of him, only a sliver but it was there.

That part of him still had hope that things would change for him and Hannah. All he had to do was wait—and clearly, he was very good at that.


	11. A Window of Opportunity

Neville felt uncomfortable. After sitting in a compartment with all those people the entire train ride, listening to their stories about their famous relatives—he just felt weird. Neville didn't have any 'famous' relatives…but Slughorn seemed to think his parents fell under that category.

It didn't help matters when he had to tell the entire compartment about what had happened to them. Harry and Ginny already knew, and were probably also the only people in the compartment who actually _cared_. He had seen Zabini roll his eyes more than once, and Slughorn seemed just as unimpressed when their little meeting ended at the conclusion of the train ride.

Neville wasn't all that disappointed, though. Being a member of some exclusive club with THOSE people? Not really his cup of tea.

After the feast, as he headed towards the dorms, he realized that he hadn't seen Hannah at all during the trip to school. He frowned to himself as he realized this and looked around the crowd, trying to spot her pretty blonde hair, but no luck. Sighing heavily, he decided that he had had a long day, and he'd see her in the morning. She'd understand once he explained what a nutter Slughorn was.

The next morning, after he tried (unsuccessfully) to convince McGonagall to let him take Transfiguration with his Acceptable OWL score, he finally managed to track her down. She was in the courtyard, reading over her new Charms textbook (he silently thanked McGonagall when he saw this for convincing him to take that class instead) and he tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and, upon seeing him, grinning and threw herself into his arms.

"Neville!" she exclaimed. He laughed and hugged her back before she pulled away and moved down the stone bench, making room for him to sit down.

"Where were you yesterday? I was looking for you everywhere!" she said, smacking him lightly on the arm with a grin. Neville felt his heart sped up. He KNEW she wouldn't be mad at him.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Harry and I were kind of…abducted by that new Potions professor," he explained with a chuckle. He went on to tell her about the meeting with Slughorn, and how the majority of the people there really had no brains at all, just famous connections.

"Why did he ask you to come?" she asked, wrinkling her eyebrows. "You don't have some secret famous aunt you haven't told me about, do you?" she joked.

Neville bit his lip for a second. He wanted to tell her about his parents…he really did…but right now didn't seem the place. It was right at the beginning of term, she was so happy to see him, and he was, obviously, very happy to see her…yes, this was not the time. When that would be, he wasn't sure, but it just wasn't this moment.

"I dunno, probably cause of the whole Ministry thing. Ginny was there too," he said. He knew the real reason she had caught Slughorn's eye was because of her Bat-Bogey Hex, but it made sense that one of the reasons could be because of the Department of Mysteries.

"Oh, I see. So you didn't like it much?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nah, I felt like I was being judged the whole time. Plus, I don't want to be friends with any of those people, especially Zabini and McLaggen. They seem like two complete prats," he muttered. "And I can see Ginny and Harry any time I want so, what's the point?"

Judging by Slughorn's reaction to his history, however, Neville wasn't even sure if another invitation would be in his near future.

"So, how was your train ride?" he asked her. He was eager to change the subject already.

"It was good. Really good, actually," she said with a smile, but then she frowned. "I was kind of disappointed I didn't get to see you. I wanted to hear about your summer!"

"Well, I'm here now," Neville replied with a grin. As he looked at her, he got the sense that she was bursting to tell him something. She seemed…incredibly happy, which was an emotion he felt he hadn't seen on her in almost a year. He sensed that there was something about HER summer that she was just dying to tell him, so he decided to give in and let her share whatever seemed to be on her mind.

"Why don't you go first?" he said with a small smirk.

Sure enough, she giggled and broke the news to him. "I broke up with Ernie!"

Silence.

Neville wasn't sure if he had heard her right. She…broke up with him? With ERNIE? Did she really just utter those words? And, even better, was she really…_happy_ about it? Neville wasn't sure what to do next—did he smile and join her excitement? Did he say 'Oh, that's too bad' when really, he was beyond thrilled that the time had finally come for their relationship to end?

"Really?" he asked. That was all he could think to do.

She nodded and smiled. "Yup! I think we both kind of agreed that things just weren't working for us. We tried…well, we tried to make it work," she explained, biting her lip and turning red. "Unfortunately, we just couldn't click. We determined we were better as friends, and ever since, our relationship has been great!" she explained.

Hmm, that made sense. Neville agreed that Hannah and Ernie had always gotten along better when they weren't dating. But now, even though Neville was completely ecstatic about the fact that they had finally, after all their horrible fights and all the tears she had shed on his behalf, they were DONE, he faced a whole new set of problems. A window of opportunity had finally opened up and now…he had no idea what to do.

"Well…if it's for the best, then great," he said with a smile. She chuckled again and started randomly flipping through pages in her book. As he watched her, his brain started whirling.

What did he do now? Obviously, he wasn't going to confess his feelings to her this very second…that was much too soon. But how soon was TOO soon? Should he just continue to be her friend for the time being? That seemed reasonable. After a few moments of mulling it over, he decided that that was what he would do. After all, he didn't need to make a decision this very second. He doubted Hannah would want to dive into a relationship right away anyways.

"Your summer was more eventful than mine, believe me," Neville said with a chuckle. As he had predicted, the hype about the Ministry event had died pretty quickly, and instead of articles about Harry and his friends in the Department of Mysteries, the front pages were instead covered with stories about Death Eater sightings and bridges collapsing…it was all rather depressing and Neville had, once again, spent most of the summer with his plants.

"Well…yes. I suppose it was," she said, her face falling a bit. Neville frowned and wrinkled his eyebrows.

"You ok? You're not worried about the Death Eaters, are you? Those Ministry pamphlets actually had some helpful tips…"

"No, it's not that…well, I suppose it is a bit. I mean…nevermind," she said with a chuckle. "I'm probably worrying over nothing with those silly Death Eaters. Like you said, just use common sense and I'll be fine, right?" she asked with a grin.

"Right, I did say that," he replied with a small smile, recalling the tiny pep talk he had given her years ago when she was worrying about her family. As they gathered their things and prepared to go to their first lesson, he knew this year was going to be a tough one for her. Now that You-Know-Who was out in the open about his return, and people seemed to be getting attacked left and right, it was only natural that her fears would return as well. He knew that she'd be perfectly safe here but what could he say to make her feel better about her family at home?

And as they walked down the corridors, Neville couldn't ignore the fact that Hannah seemed to be deliberately keeping something from him.


	12. Secret Revealed

_**Sorry for the lack of updates again, guys. I LOVE getting your reviews in my email, though, and I'm so glad you all enjoy my story! As I've said before, I won't give up on this project, despite how long it might take me to update sometimes. Keep the reviews coming and keep reading! You're all awesome :D**_

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"I dunno WHAT I'd do without you Neville," Hannah giggled as she continued her sketch of the Venomous Tentacula that they had been assigned for Herbology homework. Neville grinned at her from across the table, moving the book he had propped up against his things so she could see the diagram on the page a bit more clearly.

"Well, I know we're technically supposed to draw it from memory but, I knew I had a book with a diagram inside, so what the hell?" he told her with a grin.

Hannah let out a laugh, and immediately shot a glance at Madam Pince's desk, knowing she had been rather loud. The librarian hadn't noticed yet, however, so she giggled in a softer tone and looked back at Neville.

"Who'd have thought in first year that Neville Longbottom would be helping me cheat on homework someday?" she said with a smirk. Merlin, she just LOVED throwing the fact that he had been a complete loser back in his face, didn't she?

"Oi, be nice! Remember, I'm the one who has the book, I can easily take it back and force you to draw it all from memory and you'd be completely screwed," he reminded her with a smile.

She just rolled her eyes playfully and went back to drawing. Neville watched her draw for a few moments before turning back to his own picture before she caught him staring. He couldn't help it though—these last few weeks had been amazing.

Hannah just seemed so…carefree since breaking up with Ernie. They joked on a regular basis, and Neville had convinced himself that they practically WERE dating, except…there was no kissing. Or hand holding. Or, the most important thing—sex. Still, he was amazed at how he felt so at ease around her, and how he was just naturally able to be himself around her. They just seemed to click so well, it was almost a miracle.

And yet…she was still hiding something, and it irked him.

Every once in a while, she looked like she wanted to burst out and say it, but that look would quickly fade away and he'd be left to guess what was on her mind once again. Occasionally when they talked about Ernie, she'd be a bit jumpy as well, which made him suspicious…had the scumbag done something to her? Even though things were going amazingly well for the two of them, Neville couldn't full enjoy it because he knew something was nudging him in the back of his mind. She's keeping something from you.

He wasn't sure what exactly possessed him to bring it up that day-maybe Malfoy slipped Babbling Beverage in his pumpkin juice again?—but before he was totally aware of what was happening, he found himself asking the question that had been driving him mad since school started.

"Hannah?"

"Hmmm?"

"What are you not telling me?"

She looked up from her homework and blinked at him quizzically. He'd taken her by surprise—hell he'd even taken HIMSELF by surprise a bit on that one—but after a moment, she sighed.

"What are you talking about?"

Neville was faced with two options…he could drop it, or continue pushing her and risk getting her angry. He really REALLY wanted to just drop it and forget that slip ever happened, but he wasn't going to do himself any good going that route. It would just continue to bug him. He couldn't be afraid of pissing people off his ENTIRE life, right? One had to take chances and speak their mind every once in a while!

"There's something you're not telling me, and I'm sorry if this seems a bit intrusive, but you know you can always talk to me," he assured her. Maybe THAT was why she wasn't telling him. She was afraid he'd reject her or something.

She glanced around cautiously, biting her lip as she did so. Once she seemed to conclude it was safe to continue the conversation, she leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice. "Neville, you're one of my best mates. I KNOW I can talk to you about anything but…promise you won't judge me? No matter what?" she asked. Her eyes, which had just moments ago been playful and energetic, were now pleading with him. This was serious.

Oh Merlin. What if she KILLED someone?

No, that was absolutely ridiculous. Why the fuck did that even cross his mind?

"Of course," he assured her, leaning in as well so she could lower her voice even more if she wanted to.

She took a deep breath. This was it, the big reveal…Neville's questions were FINALLY going to be answered…

"Over the summer, when I was trying to figure out how I felt about Ernie, I…well, WE…we slept together," she said, barely whispering the last part.

Silence.

Neville wasn't even sure he heard his heart beating for that fraction of a second.

Ernie…and Hannah…TOGETHER? In THAT way? No, there was just…no. No way. It couldn't be possible, it just COULDN'T.

_Oh come ON Longbottom. Two sixteen year olds who had been dating for over two years were bound to do it eventually. You just want to protect this image of Hannah being a perfect angel in your head._

Hell yeah he did.

"You…you did?" he asked. He would not allow himself to show her how shocked he was, and how panicky his thoughts were at the moment. He'd promised her he wouldn't judge. She needed his support right now, even though he was pretty sure he was having a heart attack. Was he imagining those pains in his left arm?

"Yeah and…I dunno, I'm not sure if I regret it or not," she told him. She looked incredibly depressed now, almost like she was going to cry.

_There. Are you satisfied with yourself? You made her CRY._

"Hannah…" Neville muttered, awkwardly reaching out and putting his hand on her arm in a comforting sort of way. "What…why do you regret it?" he asked.

"I just don't know if my heart was really in it," she explained, wiping a lone tear from her eye. Neville quickly glanced around to make sure no one was watching…so far, no one seemed to be paying them any attention. For the first time in forever, Neville was more than happy about that. "I feel like I did it just so I could fix our relationship…in fact, it made it WORSE…"

"But…" Neville took a deep breath. Ok, he really needed to get into Best Friend mode here and give her some advice. Clearly, she was hurting over it and ashamed, which was obviously what had stopped her from telling him when she first saw him. He needed to tell her something to cheer her up. He was obligated to.

"You said that you and Ernie are great now that you're apart?" he asked. She nodded, and he knew he was going somewhere good with this. "Well, if you didn't…you know…DO that…you probably wouldn't have figured that out and you'd still be in a relationship that was draining for you," he told her.

She smiled and nodded in agreement, and Neville knew he'd hit the jackpot. He could see her considerably brightening up already. His assurance that she hadn't made a horrible mistake—although deep down, he was still FREAKING OUT and convinced that she HAD made a huge mistake—really seemed to help her.

"You know what…you're right. You're so right. I dunno why I didn't see it earlier," she said with a chuckle. The pain in Neville's chest lessened a bit when he heard her laugh. That secret must have really been weighing heavily on her mind. "Thank you, Neville. I was so afraid to tell you…I didn't want you to think I was a slut," she said with a little sigh.

"Hannah, you know I'd never think that about you," he assured her.

"I know, I was being silly when I thought that," Hannah replied with a small grin. She glanced down at her watch, and suddenly her eyes widened. "It's nearly 6 o'clock! I didn't realize it was that late…dinner is well underway already," she informed him.

Dinner. Right. Just like that, things seemed to be back to normal between them. Except it WASN'T. Now Neville knew this horrible, disturbing piece of information and he couldn't erase it from his memory. As time ticked by, Neville allowed his brain to process it even more, which in turn, was starting to cause the panic all over again.

"You know what? I'm gonna run this book back to my dorm, it weighs a ton and I don't want to drag it to the Great Hall with me…I'll see you for dessert later," he said, putting on a smile for her behalf as she packed up her things.

"Ok," she replied with a smile as she slung her book bag over her shoulder. She started to head out, but turned around halfway to the door and walked back to Neville, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks so much Neville. I really needed to get that off my chest," she whispered in his ear before smiling at him once more and exiting the library.

Once she was gone, he grabbed his book and set off for the Gryffindor tower. The walk never seemed so far, and he power walked nearly the entire way there. Once he got to his dorm, he flung his book onto the floor and collapsed on his bed with a loud groan. Predictably, everyone was at dinner, so he had the dorm to himself, and he was free to freak out in private.

Oh god, he was going to throw up. He couldn't even begin to imagine them together…and yet, he couldn't STOP it from happening, because now that he knew, there was no going back. It just…it wasn't fair! Ernie was such a complete prat! What had possessed her to think that SLEEPING with him was the answer?

He jumped up, unable to sit still for long, and began to pace around the dorm. "Ok, calm down Longbottom," he told himself out loud, running a hand through his hair as he paced the room. It wasn't a HUGE deal, it had only happened once, right?

Wait, DID it? He hadn't asked! He should have asked…no, he didn't want to know!

He just kept telling himself that it wasn't fair. He was her best friend, he knew everything about her-like the fact that she loved wearing the color brown, her favorite animal was the bear, and when she was alone at night, she still read Marvin the Mad Muggle. And he was so in love with her, everything about her made him want to scoop her up in his arms and snog her senseless.

As that thought occurred to him he paused. So, he really had fallen in love with her, hadn't he? He plopped down on his bed and placed his face in his palms. There was no getting around the fact now-he was in love with Hannah. All he could think about was holding her, touching her, kissing her and whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

Oh Merlin. He was such a complete wreck.

He needed to do something, he needed to SAY something…Neville stood up from his bed, fists clenched, ready to go downstairs and march right up to her at the Hufflepuff table, proclaiming his love for her…

No, he couldn't do that. Not in front of Ernie…for all he knew, the dude was still hung up on her. He wouldn't blame him. If he ever messed up his chance at having a girl THAT amazing as a girlfriend, he'd feel like complete rubbish.

Which was why he couldn't go confess his love to her. Not right this second.

Things were going so well for him right now…they were getting along great, and he was sure romantic feelings were blossoming on her end too. At least, he HOPED that was the case. He couldn't be entirely sure. But what if he was wrong? Besides, this wasn't the way to start a relationship with the girl of his dreams. Sure, maybe that was how they did it in romance novels, but in real life, you needed to take things slow. He needed to ask her on a date. Buy her some presents to show her how much he cared for her. Bring her home to meet Gran…well, no, that could probably wait until WAY down the line.

He couldn't mess this up by acting on a spur of the moment decision. Not to mention, he'd completely embarrass himself in front of everyone and he'd have to transfer to Durmstrang or something. He wasn't about to let that happen.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he composed himself and ran his hands over his face, attempting to calm down. He wasn't freaking out as much as he had before, but his brain was still whirling from the realization that Ernie and Hannah had…you know.

Sighing, he got up from the bed and went over to his mirror, smoothing out his hair and examining himself. He didn't LOOK very distressed, so hopefully Hannah would be completely oblivious to the emotional roller coaster he was currently experiencing on the inside.


	13. Turn of Events

_**The upside of snow days? Finally some time to work on my fanfiction! I apologize in advance because this is an awfully small update and I'm sure you were all hoping for something longer when I returned—but I felt it was better to keep it short due to the events in the chapter. Enjoy!**_

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Neville had been planning to bide his time. Once he felt the time was right, he'd tell Hannah about how he felt. He was sure she felt the same way about him, or would at least consider the idea of dating if he brought it up to her. They could do it. He was sure they could do it. All he needed to do was find the right moment to tell her how he felt.

But he never got the chance.

He could relive almost every detail of the day in his head. They'd been in Herbology, taking notes on Venomous Tentacula, when McGonagall entered the greenhouses and headed straight for Professor Sprout. Everyone could tell right away that McGonagall was not there just to chat with Sprout. There was a grave look on her face, and as they spoke, she ever so slightly glanced at Hannah, who was working alongside Neville. He felt his heart skip a beat in his chest. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Sprout looked horrified by whatever McGonagall had told her, and when she motioned for Hannah to follow her into the corridor, her face had been drained of all its color. Neville wanted desperately to go with her, to hold her hand, to hug her and let her know everything was going to be ok even though he was positive it wasn't. Instead, all he could do was look into her eyes as she walked away, trying to tell her he'd be there for her no matter what through a simple gaze.

He didn't see her the rest of the day. Word quickly began to spread that Sprout had informed Hannah that her mother had been found dead in their home. When Neville heard the news, he'd headed straight for the Hufflepuff common room, just waiting out there for her, just in case she ever came down for dinner.

She never did.

Ernie told him the next day that she'd gone home to attend to personal matters, which was understandable. Still, Neville couldn't stop worrying about her. He just felt so bad for her, understood so clearly what it was like to lose a loved one to the hand of Death Eaters—he just wanted to see her. He wasn't sure when she was going to come back, so all he could do was sit around and wait.

He wrote to her a few days after the incident, not really expecting a reply in return. He just wanted to let her know that he was there for her, and that whenever she wanted to talk, she knew he'd be there for her. It was just a quick note, and he sent it via one of the school owls in the Owlery. Even though he was sure she wouldn't reply, he hoped with just a small part of him that she would. Just to let him know that she was ok.

* * *

She never returned to school. Neville's every thought seemed to revolve around her, and he only got temporary relief from the mental torture when the Death Eaters attacked the school. Once Dumbledore was discovered dead—it was like the world was ending. First he'd lost Hannah, now they all lost Dumbledore? It seemed like it couldn't get any worse.

He'd injured himself pretty badly in that fight, causing him to walk with a cane for a month or two after the attack. All through the funeral, as he reflected on Dumbledore's life and all the great memories he had of the man, he couldn't help but wonder how Hannah was reacting to the news. It'd been months since he talked to her, and he wished she'd been here with him—that it was her helping him into the chair instead of Luna. Still, two funerals would undoubtedly be too much for poor Hannah.

Once he returned home, he found a small letter waiting for him. It was from Hannah.

It wasn't long—only a small paragraph. She just thanked him for his well wishes when her mother died, and she wrote that she'd heard about his leg and wished him a speedy recovery. That was it. She didn't mention anything about Dumbledore, or if she'd be returning to Hogwarts in the fall.

Neville worked in his garden almost the entire summer. It was therapeutic for him—his leg was well enough to get rid of the cane by his birthday, and he found a small amount of pleasure in the fact that he could now use his magic to aid him with his garden. Still, he was down in the dumps for the majority of the summer, and time seemed to move slowly as he counted down the days till they returned for their final year at Hogwarts.

That would be the day when he'd find out if he ever saw the love of his life again.


	14. Never Seen That Look Before

Neville was eating his breakfast one morning, thinking of Hannah once more, when he heard his gran let out a grunt of disgust in the living room. He wrinkled his eyebrows and stopped eating his eggs. What was that all about?

"Gran? Everything ok?" he called into the room. His gran entered a moment later, carrying the latest issue of the Daily Prophet in her hands. She looked completely appalled by something, and just as he was about to ask what was wrong, she threw the paper on the table next to him.

The headline jumped out at him immediately. He blinked in shock a few times before looking at her. "No," he muttered.

"Yes," she said with a sigh. She muttered something under her breath and went back to the kitchen, talking to herself angrily as she busied herself by cleaning up the leftovers from breakfast.

Neville's eyes concentrated on the giant picture of Severus Snape on the front cover and read the details of the article. Snape as Headmaster? There was just…no. He couldn't believe it. Snape was the absolute WORST choice for Headmaster! Why not McGonagall? Or Sprout?

What was he thinking…it was obvious why he'd gotten the job. Death Eaters had clearly weaseled their way into Hogwarts.

That was just what he needed. To face his NEWT year with Death Eaters lurking around the school.

He wondered if Hannah had read the newspaper yet. He still hadn't heard from her, and wasn't sure if she'd even be returning to school. If she was still trying to decide, he doubted that Snape's appointment to Headmaster would convince her that coming back to school was a good idea.

He stood up and brought his plate to the sink, setting it down with a sigh.

"I know, it's horrible isn't it?" Gran muttered, taking his plate and waving her wand, watching the sponge as it began to scrub away the grease from the bacon.

"I can't imagine many people coming back to school after this. I know I certainly wouldn't want my kids going to school with that madman," he explained.

She looked at him in confusion. "Neville, did you even read the article? It's mandatory for everyone to attend school!" she exclaimed. He blinked.

"Wait, really?" he asked. He HADN'T read the article—the headline had told him all he needed to know as far as he was concerned. His gran rolled her eyes.

"Of course! You can't imagine the Death Eaters would allow students to choose whether or not they can attend school—they can't influence anyone that way," she grumbled. "You need to take a blood test before going, to prove magical worth or some nonsense…"

Neville blocked the rest of her rant out. If it was mandatory for everyone to attend—that meant that Hannah would be back. She'd be forced to come back, or most likely face Azkaban or some shit. This was amazing! He'd finally get to see her! After all this time, he'd finally get to hug her, to hold her close to him…he'd finally get to console her over her mother's death, to tell her how he felt about her…

Suddenly, Snape becoming Headmaster didn't seem like such a bad thing after all.

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Neville barely got any sleep the night before he headed to school. He'd packed and repacked at least five times, picking his best clothes to bring to school with him. He was counting down the hours until he saw Hannah again—in fact, it was downright difficult to hide his excitement from his gran. She had no idea why he was so happy to get to school, so he had to keep pretending that he was pissed as hell that he was being forced to go learn at a school led by Snape. He WAS pissed, but his excitement for seeing Hannah trumped all of that.

When they arrived at the train station, he noticed that it was much emptier than usual, and his heart began to sink. Of course…all the muggleborns and their families wouldn't be there. That meant no Hermione, no Dean, no Justin…who knew where any of them were right now. They could be dead for all he knew. Even though he was still desperately trying to find Hannah in the crowd, the reality of the situation was starting to become clear to him. Full out war was definitely on the horizon.

He said goodbye to his gran and then boarded the train, finding Seamus in a compartment all by himself, looking extremely depressed. Neville knew immediately that it was because of Dean. "Hey," he muttered, throwing his trunk haphazardly on the shelf above him. Seamus attempted to smile and waved at him, and they sat silently for a few minutes before they were joined by Ginny, who looked extremely depressed as well. At first Neville thought maybe it was because of Dean, but then it hit him—she had entered the compartment alone, which meant there were two very important people missing from the train right now.

"Ginny…where's Harry? And Ron?" he asked quietly.

She just shrugged and looked out the window. For some reason, Neville really hadn't considered the possibility that Harry wouldn't be coming back this year, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made to him. After all, he was Undesirable Number 1 now, and even before that, going back to Hogwarts would be like walking right into a death trap. The only consolation he could think of was that this most likely meant Ron and Hermione were safe. Harry was sure to be looking out for them—wherever they were.

The train began to move, and he became restless. He still hadn't seen Hannah, and since she didn't seem like she was going to be coming to him anytime soon, he stood up and announced he was going to the loo. Instead, he headed in the opposite direction, and began to scan the compartments he passed, looking for Hannah.

Finally, after a few minutes of searching, he found her sitting with Ernie and Susan. While Susan looked rather down (most likely because of Justin—he'd always figured they had something going on between them) Ernie and Hannah looked alright, considering the circumstances. In fact, as he watched them, she even laughed at something he said.

He knocked on the door, causing all three Hufflepuffs to look up at him. Ernie and Susan smiled at him, waving as Hannah said something to them that he couldn't make out. She got up from her seat and opened the door, entering the corridor where he stood. Her perfume flooded his nostrils, and he was overcome with a rush of emotions that almost made him want to cry. He felt like he hadn't seen her in decades.

"Neville," she said softly with a smile, and before he could react, she reached out and wrapped her arms around him tightly. He hugged her back, squeezing her as though he'd never let go. He buried his face in her blonde hair, willing himself not to cry. He'd been so convinced a few months ago that he'd never see her again, and now here he was, holding her in his arms as she kissed his cheek. He wished he could freeze this moment in time and just live in it forever. Nothing else seemed to matter right now.

"I missed you," he told her quietly. She finally pulled away and smiled and him, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling back at her. "I was so convinced for a while that I'd never see you again…"

She chuckled. "And leave you to face Venomous Tentacula without me? Not likely," she joked. Neville couldn't stop beaming with delight—his heart was racing as he slowly began to realize that things hadn't changed much between them at all. All she'd needed was some time.

"I think I'd have managed by myself," he teased, causing her to laugh again. After a few seconds of silence passed, she bit her lip and looked down at her feet, as if she was trying to figure out what to say to him next. Finally she looked up at him once more before taking a deep breath.

"Thank you for writing. It meant the world to me…I was a shit friend, not writing back to you…" she muttered, frowning and clearly showing her remorse on her face. He shook his head immediately.

"No, no…it was understandable. You were going through a rough time," he told her, nodding his head just to emphasis how much he understood. "It's alright, just forget it happened," he assured her. He wasn't going to go hold any grudges against her for not writing to him. It was _Hannah._ He could never be angry at her for more than like, an hour.

She smiled once more and then hugged him again. As he held her, he closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. This situation couldn't have turned out any better. Sure, he'd have to face a school run by Death Eaters in the very near future, but he had Hannah with him, and right now, nothing else mattered.

"Hannah…I'll protect you," he whispered in her ear. If Snape was Headmaster, that meant shit was going to go down once they arrived, and he was going to make sure that he did whatever it took to keep Hannah from being harmed. Whether it was emotional or physical or—whatever was in store for them when the train stopped, he'd always try and be one step ahead to stop it before it got to her.

"I know you will," she said, tightening her embrace around him. As she pulled away, Neville wanted to reach out and kiss her, and pull her close and just spill his soul to her right now, and he probably would have if it weren't for Ernie and Susan sitting in the compartment right there. She smiled and told him that she'd meet up with them later after she ate lunch with her friends, and as he looked at her, Neville felt like there was something else there when she spoke. There was a sort of longing in her voice, he was sure of it. Something was lurking behind those eyes of hers, and maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part, but Hannah had never looked at him that way before.

His heart sped up as he walked back to his compartment. For the first time ever, he knew without a doubt that Hannah was hiding feelings for him. Everything about her as she left him had given it away. He reached for the door handle of the compartment he was sharing with Ginny and Seamus with a shaking hand, and he smiled to himself as he walked in.

_Oh my Merlin,_ he thought to himself. _Have my dreams really come true?_


	15. A Nightmare to a Dream Come True

**Hello everyone! I'm back again with an update…since you were all waiting patiently for school to settle down for me, I've written a HUGE update for you all so I hope you enjoy!**

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"This is bullshit," Ginny muttered, her arms crossed angrily across her chest. They were in the Gryffindor common room, discussing Snape and the Carrows who were now in charge of the two subjects that could do the most damage with—Muggle Studies and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Classes had officially started today, and just as Neville had suspected, those two subjects were completely different. Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed to have been changed to Death Eater Training 101—there was nothing about defense anymore. The spells Amycus had taught them today were violent and horrific—the kinds that no normal human being would use just for the hell of it.

Predictably most of the Slytherins in the room were in awe as they watched him demonstrate the spells.

Muggle Studies was much worse. Neville couldn't believe the lies that Alecto was spilling out to the students! Muggles had stolen magic from wizards for years, and that was how muggleborns and people with filthy blood came about. Muggles were so stupid they couldn't even crack an egg without needing fancy electric machines to do it for them. It was just one lie after another.

The whole time she spoke, Neville kept glancing at Hannah. She was half blood, and he knew this must be hard for her to listen to. Her mother was the one in her family who'd been muggleborn. He watched her as she tried to keep a straight face, but he could tell by the pools of unshed tears in her eyes that it was killing her inside.

Once class was dismissed, he caught up to her in the hall, grabbing her arm gently as he approached her. "Hey, Hannah, hold up," he said. She turned, wiping away the tears that had fallen on her cheeks as she left the room in a hurry.

"Oh, hey," she said, putting on a smile and attempting to be cheerful, but Neville wasn't about to be fooled. He pulled her into a hug, and without a word she buried her face in his shoulder. They sat there for about 10 minutes, and he wasn't sure if she was crying the entire time or not, but it didn't matter. He just continued to rub her back until she had composed herself.

She'd had to hurry off to Ancient Runes after that, so Neville went to spend his free period in the common room, where he'd run into Ginny and they'd immediately started complaining about their new professors. Neville had never imagined that things would be this bad, and it was only the first day. Who knew how sick and twisted things would get as the year went on!

He thought of Hannah, and how destroyed she'd been after just one Muggle Studies class. He could only imagine how the other half bloods were dealing with the change in curriculum. This was wrong, everyone knew it was and it was just going to get worse…the only person doing anything about this was Harry. He didn't know for certain where he was or what he was doing, but he was SURE it had something to do with bringing down You-Know-Who and the rest of his followers. Harry wasn't just on the run, he was planning to overtake them. He just knew it. It wasn't like Harry to disappear into the wild to save himself. Wherever he was, he was sure that Ron and Hermione were with him as well.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Neville couldn't just sit back and let this happen. He couldn't let Hannah endure the suffering day in and day out—no one should have to go through that, least of all her. She'd been through so much already. He realized that he'd been gripping the sides of his armchair with great force, and he relaxed his grip, taking a deep breath to calm down.

Who said that Harry, Ron and Hermione had to be the only people to take charge in a crisis? They weren't here, so clearly they wouldn't be the ones stepping up to make things right—but someone had to.

Why couldn't that someone be _him?_

He looked at Ginny and took a deep breath. "We need to do something," he said simply.

She wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion. "Do something? You mean…like…"

He nodded, sure that she understood what he was getting at. "I mean, we need to take a stand. We did it once before, why not do it again?" he asked.

Ginny sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes. Neville knew why she was hesitating—she was thinking of Harry. "I don't know Neville, we had help last time…"

In a split second, he felt himself get angry and defensive and he jumped to his feet. "You mean because we had _Harry_ helping us last time? We can get along just fine without him! The majority of the DA still goes to school here, in case you forgot, we can still fight!"

He knew immediately that he'd hurt her, and bit his lip as her eyes filled with tears. He sighed and shook his head. "Ginny, I'm sorry but…Harry would want us doing this, wouldn't he?" he asked. "Rather than just sit around and do nothing, I think he'd be proud to see us fighting. I really do," he told her. True, she knew him much better than he did, but he was fairly certain he knew Harry well enough to know he'd encourage this behavior.

She was silent for a while, but eventually nodded and smiled at him softly. "Yeah, he would. I'm sorry Neville, I'm just…" her voice trailed off, and Neville nodded in understanding. He walked over to her and gave her a hug, but she pushed him away quickly. He wasn't surprised by her behavior at all—it was just how Ginny reacted to things. She cleared her throat and composed herself quickly, sitting up straight in her chair again.

"I actually have an idea. I know something we can do for Harry, but it might be difficult," she explained. Neville sat up, intrigued, as Ginny began to explain her plan. As she told her what they intended to have them do, he was beginning to think that she was off her rocker—but if it would help get the Carrows out of here, he'd do it. He'd do anything to get rid of the Carrows. He'd do anything to protect the students.

He'd do anything to protect Hannah.

* * *

CLANG!

Neville bit his lip and reached forward to grab the shiny silver…star shaped thing that he'd just knocked off the end table on accident. Ginny turned around and shot him a horribly dirty look, while Luna looked completely undisturbed.

"Neville!" Ginny whispered at him. "Do you WANT us to get caught?"

"I'm sorry!" he mouthed back at her. He had to admit, his little fit of clumsiness had caused his heart to race. He looked around, but so far, they were still alone, and the portraits were still asleep.

He knew that they were playing with fire right now. They were breaking into the Headmasters office, and it wasn't just any Headmaster—it was SNAPE. Severus freaking Snape. If they got caught, Neville was positive that would be the end of them. He had no doubts in his mind that Snape could murder them and make it look like an accident.

"I can see why Harry would want this sword—it's beautifully made," Luna commented as she looked at the sword, which was handsomely displayed above the fireplace near the back of the room. Ginny ignored her, and Neville just looked at Luna and shrugged. Ginny hadn't told them much about why Harry needed the sword, exactly—they just knew that apparently, it belonged to him and it'd been briefly mentioned a few times at the Weasley's house before Harry disappeared.

Neville wanted to help Harry, he really did, but he was also doing this for himself as well—if he succeeded with this, he'd be proving to himself that he WAS capable of running some sort of rebellion group against the Carrows and Snape. He was fairly certain he could do it, especially with Luna and Ginny's help, but that didn't stop him from having doubts. He was only human—plus seven years of Malfoy telling him he was worthless had seriously taken a toll on him.

Ginny looked over her shoulder at him after she determined that it was clear, and nodded. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the case, flicking it once and causing the glass to vanish.

Ginny raised her wand and waved it, muttering under her breath. The sword began to lift from its holder, floating perilously in the air as she slowly guided it towards Luna's outstretched hands.

Neville was so intent on watching them that he hadn't noticed that one of the portraits was now empty.

The sword made its way into her grasp, and Ginny broke the spell, rushing over to help Luna grab the heavy artifact as Neville grabbed the other end as well. They could easily levitate the sword without any trouble, but they'd be really slow moving, and they figured carrying it would be the easiest way to make a quick getaway.

Carrying the sword amongst the three of them, they hurried towards the staircase and began to ascend. Neville's heart was racing…they were almost there, they were almost free, they were just steps away from success!

He stopped suddenly as his foot hit the last step and he found himself standing nose to nose with none other than Severus Snape. He stood there, arms crossed, eyeing up the trio as they halted and accidentally dropped the sword right at his feet.

"Well well well. What have we here?"

* * *

Yup, he was a goner.

As Snape led them back into his office, with the sword of Gryffindor held tightly in his slimy, pale hands, Neville could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He prayed to Merlin that whoever delivered the news to his Gran broke it to her gently. Hopefully she'd take good care of his Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Maybe she'd even locate his diary when she was clearing out his things in his room, and she'd tell Hannah about all the amazing things he'd written about her in there.

He was so busy trying to figure out how everyone would react to his death that he had hardly registered the fact that he was now sitting down, in a chair, facing Snape at his desk. He didn't say a word for a good five minutes—he just sat there, holding the sword between his hands and turning it over slowly, scanning it meticulously as if looking for damage.

"May I ask what exactly you were trying to accomplish by removing the sword from my office?" he asked them coldly, still refusing to look at any of them. No one said anything for a while, until finally Luna piped up and answered him.

"Well, to put it simply Headmaster, we were trying to steal it," she explained.

Neville simply clasped his hands in his lap, twiddling his thumbs nervously as he waited for a response from Snape.

"That part was obvious," he said slowly. He finally looked up at them and placed the sword on his desk, folding his hands together on top of the hilt.

"I'm not sure why you thought you needed to acquire the sword, or what you were planning on doing with it, but I trust that you will not make the same mistake in the future," he told them. Hmmm. So far, not so bad. Neville unclasped his sweaty hands and was able to relax a bit more. Maybe Snape wasn't going to kill them.

Then again, he hadn't finished speaking. Maybe he just hadn't gotten to the killing part yet.

"I assure you three that the sword of Gryffindor is of absolutely NO concern to you," he continued, standing up and picking up the sword once more. He turned his back to them and waved his wand, levitating the sword back up into its holder once more. "To further this point, I have no problem informing you all that because of your exploits tonight, the sword will be moved immediately to another safe location."

Neville could care less what Snape did with the sword—he sure as hell was not going to be back here any time soon looking for it. He glanced over at Ginny and she looked disappointed, but at the same time she seemed relieved. Luna had dazed off, observing the numerous sleeping portraits as Snape headed back to his desk.

"Now, as for your punishment," he began, and Neville's breath caught in his throat. Oh God. Here was the moment he'd been dreading. What would it be, hanging by his thumbs in the dungeons? Being fed to dragons? Cleaning the floor of the owlery for all eternity?

"I hereby sentence all three of you to detention in the Forbidden Forest. You'll be under the supervision of Rubeus Hagrid, and I trust you all follow his requests during your detention, because if you don't, I guarantee your punishment for disobeying him will be much worse," he explained to them. Neville blinked a few times in shock. That was it? Detention with Hagrid? Hell, that wasn't a punishment, that was practically a Saturday afternoon!

He looked up at the Headmaster, who was deliberately avoiding their gaze. Something was…off about him. Did he sincerely think this was a horrific punishment? The way that he was avoiding all of their eyes seemed to depict otherwise. Maybe he was completely aware that he was letting them off easy. That seemed so unlikely of Snape though…after all, this was Slytherin's Head of House. A man who had a very well known grudge against Gryffindor. Against HARRY. Yet here he was, practically letting them off the hook after they tried to steal one of the most important artifacts in the wizarding world.

"You may leave. Go straight back to your common rooms!" he barked at them. He stood up and turned around, walking around his desk and holding the door open for them. The three of them stood up, wordlessly walking out of the office, and once they had cleared the threshold, Snape slammed the door.

They remained silent until Luna broke away from them to head back to her common room. They paused outside the Fat Lady's portrait, eager to discuss what had just happened.

"I can't believe that was all he punished us with! I was expecting far worse—I thought the Carrows would be involved, at the very least!" Ginny exclaimed in shock.

"I know, it was almost like…he was going soft on us. Which makes absolutely no sense but…I'm glad he did," Neville admitted with a small chuckle. Ginny giggled and nodded, before announcing that she was headed to bed. She muttered the password to the Fat Lady, but Neville wasn't in the mood to follow her. He wanted to take a walk. He knew that Snape had told him to go straight to bed, but what would he do if he caught him out? Sentence him to feeding Fang for the rest of the school year?

He knew he shouldn't test it, but he just had to walk around. He needed to think. As he headed down the corridor and down the staircases, he wondered to himself why Snape would let them off that easily. It was so unlike him. With the Carrows at his disposal, he could have easily punished them and used them as an example for the school. Instead, he'd sentenced them to detention with HAGRID…even detention with McGonagall would seem like a punishment compared to that. They'd probably just sit around drinking tea in his hut the whole time.

"Neville?"

Completely lost in his thoughts, he jumped when someone called out his name. He turned around and saw Hannah standing nearby, carrying her bag and looking as though she'd just come from the library. _Hannah!_ Neville suddenly felt a rush of emotions upon seeing her face. Twenty minutes ago, he'd been imagining her crying over his dead body, and now here he was, very much alive, facing the girl of his dreams after he'd just done something to openly defy the Headmaster and the Death Eaters.

"Hannah!" he exclaimed, running up to her and scooping her up in his arms. All the nerves he'd felt earlier seemed to have been frozen, and now that he was out of the woods, free of pretty much all punishment, they'd finally released a rush of relief upon seeing her face. He squeezed her tightly and he heard her laughing against him, even though he was sure she was completely confused right now.

"Neville, what was that for?" she asked with a giggle. He still hadn't let her go, and she was starting to hug him back now, even though he was squeezing her so tightly he had to loosen his grip out of the fear he might actually crush her.

"I'm just…you have no idea what I just went through, I thought I was going to DIE Hannah!" he exclaimed. He was acting like a loony right now, he was completely well aware of that, but what if he HAD died and had never gotten a chance to see her again? He sure as hell was NOT going to risk that again.

That logic was probably was possessed him to do what he did next.

"Died? What are you on about?" Hannah asked with a small chuckle, half joking and half completely serious and concerned. He didn't answer, but instead, in a fit of excitement and passion, he cupped her face in his hands and brought her lips to his, kissing her full on the mouth.

A split second later, reality kicked in, and he pulled away, horrified, his green eyes nearly popping out of his head in surprise.

"I'm sorry," he muttered immediately. Oh Merlin, WHY had he done that? What on Earth had come over him? One minute, he'd just been walking along, and the next…it was like he'd just floated out of his body and abandoned all logic and reasoning, and Merlin, he'd just KISSED her! He'd just kissed Hannah! Right there, in the middle of the hallway!

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry," he continued to repeat over and over again. His face had turned beet red, and Hannah's face was starting to turn red as well. Thank goodness the corridor was empty, save for the two of them, or he'd be facing a school full of gossip spreading teenagers come morning—they were FAR scarier than Death Eaters.

Finally, after what felt like hours, she chuckled and bit her lip. "Neville, what are you apologizing for?" she asked him. Her face was still red, and she looked embarrassed as well, but at the same time, did he detect…happiness? Was she really HAPPY that he'd kissed her?

He stopped and bit his lip as well. As he did so, he realized that there was something sweet on his lips…it tasted like…raspberries. She must have been wearing raspberry lip gloss or something. It tasted—well, it tasted exactly how he had imagined Hannah to taste. The situation fully began to dawn on him now. He'd just kissed Hannah. The girl of his dreams. He'd walked right up to her and he'd kissed her. The moment he'd dreamt about for years had just happened, and instead of feeling embarrassed, he was now extremely angry that he hadn't continued the kiss longer.

"I…erm…what?" he asked. His face still felt like it was on fire, and his heart was beating hard against his chest. If she was about to say what he thought she was going to say…this could hardly be reality. He had to be dreaming. He had to.

"You don't have to apologize for kissing me," she said with a smile. Neville was certain for a second that he forgot to breathe, and he had to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming. It just wasn't possible, there was no way he could go from living in a nightmare to living in a dream.

His mouth moved, but no words came out. She just giggled at him, which he really wished she wouldn't do. It made him feel rather foolish, even though her laugh sounded like little bells and he really didn't mind it at all.

"It took you long enough," she added after a few moments of silence. He wrinkled his brows and looked at her in confusion.

"It…what? I'm sorry, I'm confused," he confessed. She just laughed again and Neville felt his face heating up. Gosh darnit, why hadn't he continued kissing her? They'd be snogging right now instead of standing there, with her giggling and making him feel like a fool.

"I SAID, it took you long enough. Blimey Neville, I thought I was going to have to be the one to do it, you were moving so slowly!" she teased him. It was starting to dawn on him now what she was exactly talking about. He blinked a few times and cleared his throat.

"Wait, are you saying you…you knew? You knew that I…that I…"

"Fancied me? Of course!"

…well, fuck.

Neville had no idea that he'd been so…so obvious! He'd thought that everything he did out of love had been perceived as platonic only. At least, he'd been trying to keep it that way. How embarrassing to know that she had seen through him all along!

"How long have you known?" he asked sheepishly.

She shrugged. "About a year now. To be honest, I wasn't ever one hundred percent sure until…well, until just now," she admitted. This time, it was her who was turning the same color as a tomato. "I've always fancied you a little bit, I think, even when we were younger…"

"Liar."

"What?"

She looked at him in confusion, and for a second he hadn't even realize he'd spoken up. He cleared his throat and looked at his feet.

"There's no way you could have fancied me all those years ago. Who would ever fancy a small, chubby little wimp like that?" he asked with a small chuckle. She wasn't laughing though—she looked sad. Instead of retorting with a joke like he'd expected, she shook her head.

"You don't get it Neville…that's not what I saw when I looked at you all those years ago. I saw…well, how about this?" she asked, looking up at him. He saw to his relief that now, she was smiling. "You take me out to dinner next weekend and I'll tell you all about it. And you can tell me how you…what was it? Almost died tonight?" she asked with a playful grin.

"Oh! Right! I completely forgot!" Neville exclaimed. He'd been all excited to tell her his story about Snape and attempting to steal the sword, but that would all have wait.

"So…it's a date?" she asked with a smile. He nodded.

"Yeah, definitely."

"Great!" she exclaimed. She pushed a piece of blonde hair behind her ear before hoisting her bag up on her shoulder once more.

"So…erm…I'll see you in class, I guess?" she said rather uncertainly, giggling a little at the awkwardness of the situation.

"Ummm, yeah, see you in class," Neville replied sheepishly. They both stood there rather awkwardly for a few moments before Hannah finally walked forward and kissed him again, just a quick peck on the lips. She giggled again and turned on her heel, heading down the corridor and out of sight.

Neville just stood there, smiling like a complete idiot at what had just happened. When he'd imagined how this night would turn out, kissing Hannah was NO WHERE in the plan. Yet somehow, fate had finally worked out in his favor—not only did he NOT die at the hands of Snape, but he'd kissed Hannah!

HE'D KISSED HANNAH!

While they still had a lot of talking to do, and Neville had a bunch of other things he had to worry about, like the Carrows, this was a step in the right direction. He was on his way to getting everything he'd ever wanted.

It was a step towards getting the woman of his dreams.


	16. Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting

Neville and Hannah didn't exactly get to have that dinner date. Not because things went downhill, or because they got into an argument—Hogsmeade trips were cancelled for all students.

Neville suspected it was because the Carrows and Snape were worried that certain students (namely himself and other members of the DA) would use the free time to plot amongst themselves and attempt to get word out to Harry about a rebellion, which was of course spot on. Even though Neville hadn't been planning on running DA meetings THAT weekend, because of his date with Hannah, it would have been the perfect opportunity for them to try and figure out a way to rise up against the Death Eaters without looking too suspicious. It wasn't going to stop them, of course, but it did make it a bit more difficult, having to try and plan meetings under the watchful eye of Snape and the Carrows.

As for himself and Hannah, he could tell by the way she flirtatiously smiled at him across the Great Hall, and the more than occasional kisses on the cheek he was receiving, that they'd get to go on their date another time, and that thought made his heart race.

As far as Neville knew, the administration hadn't done anything to the Room of Requirement, even though they knew it existed since Draco had used it to sneak in all his Death Eater friends last year. So, the DA went back to sneaking into the room whenever they got the chance, trying to figure out ways to take down Snape and the Carrows. Unfortunately, being in the leadership role wasn't coming as naturally to Neville has he would have liked, but Luna and Ginny were there to help him, so he wasn't entirely alone. Everyone was just as eager as they'd been two years ago to rise up and take a stand, but rather than practice spells every meeting, they brainstormed how they could best piss off Snape and drive him and his two minions out of the school.

"I vote we owl Fred and George and get a load of their products smuggled to us somehow," Michael Corner suggested as a few DA members nodded and chuckled in support of his idea. "We can just continue to wreck havoc on them until they go mental!"

"We should crack down on the Carrows first," Ernie added, "They're a bit more bonkers than Snape, they'll be easier to drive out!"

Neville, however, shook his head. "While I appreciate the enthusiasm, pranking them every day isn't going to do anything except cause them to hand out more detentions purely out of spite. They'll just get nastier," he explained. Ginny and Luna nodded in agreement.

"We need to go about it in a way that will prove to everyone that we haven't given up. Pranking them isn't going to do much, like Neville said, but taking a stand somehow, and showing them that Dumbledore and Harry's supporters haven't gone anywhere, and that we're willing to stand against them…that's what will REALLY scare them," Ginny told the room. Neville nodded.

"We need to send them a message somehow," he said, standing up and pacing in front of the room as he thought. The room was silent as the rest of the DA began to brainstorm what they were going to do, and after a few minutes of silence it was obvious that none of them were coming up with any ideas.

Then, suddenly, Seamus spoke up. "I…I think I have an idea," he said quietly.

Neville looked up at his friend, who was sitting in a nearby corner with the Patil twins, and nodded.

"I still have some spray paint stored somewhere in my trunk…it's the Muggle kind but, it'll due if we really want to scare them. Plus it'll be a pain for Filtch to clean," he added with a sly grin. "Dean gave some of it to me a few years ago…" he began to explain before he trialed off and cleared his throat, clearly getting emotional at the thought of his friend who was probably on the run as they spoke.

Neville looked at Ginny and Luna, who both looked thoroughly amused by the idea, before turning back to the group.

"Let's go for it…what have we got to lose?" he said with a grin as the cluster of students began to cheer in excitement.

* * *

Before they could do any mischief making in the dark of the night, Neville, Ginny and Luna first had to serve their detention. Neville knew if they had done anything before their detention, and they got caught with a bunch of students painting graffiti on the walls, they wouldn't be as lucky as they had been the first time. He was sure Snape would revoke their detention with Hagrid faster than he could say Forbiden Forest, and he was sure the replacement punishment would involve the Carrows in some way.

They served their detention on a Saturday night, and as Neville had suspected, it didn't feel like a detention at all. Hagrid took them into the Forbidden Forest, but only on the outskirts, and they had a nice little bonfire and talked more about their rebellion efforts in the school rather than doing any actual work in the forest. As much as Neville liked the groundskeeper, he wasn't exactly sold on the idea of having a "Support Harry Potter" party on the grounds. He feebly attempted to bring up how dangerous that might be, but Luna changed the conversation back to thestrals shortly afterward, so they finished their "detention" without any more conversation about the revival of Dumbledore's Army.

The next night, a small group of students who felt comfortable sneaking out around midnight met in the 5th floor corridor and began spray painting the walls. Seamus only had a couple of cans of muggle spray paint in his trunk, so they looked up a charm in the library to create the same effect with magic so more people could get in on the fun. They had also practiced the Disillusionment Charm quite a few times as well, so they could hide themselves if need be.

They spread out amongst the 5th floor and decided to stay on the same level, since it was the first night they were trying something like this. They broke off into groups of three or four students and spread out, holding their wands or spray paint cans in their hands with expressions of excitement on their faces.

As Neville had suspected (and hoped, of course) Hannah stayed with him, as did Ginny, Luna and Seamus. As Seamus showed Luna and Ginny how to operate the spray can, Hannah smiled and walked over to Neville, wordlessly pulling her wand out next to him and turning to the wall to paint a giant D on the area in front of her.

After the D was complete and they'd moved on to the U she finally spoke.

"If I'd told you in our first year that you'd be leading a movement against Snape and two Death Eater professors, what would you have said?" she asked with a grin. He chuckled and shook his head.

"I probably would have called you a loony. And accused you of being mental," he told her truthfully. To this day it was weirdly difficult to take a compliment from Hannah. She always told him how great he was, and it was still hard to believe sometimes that she really thought that way. He felt himself blushing and he turned away from her, clearing his throat.

"Well, I…I'm not TOTALLY the leader you know. Ginny and Luna are helping," he reminded her, and it only half surprised him to see her shaking her head.

"Yeah, they're up there in the front of the room with you but…you're really the one in charge Neville. During the meetings you just…you COMMAND the room, you know?" she said, taking her wand and touching up the B she'd just finished.

"Harry would be so proud if he were here," she added as they continued to work on the message. Neville just continued to blush awkwardly next to her, looking at everything BUT her in an attempt to calm his embarrassment.

"He'll be back soon, I know it," Neville mumbled. He wasn't sure why he'd said that, he'd barely thought about Harry's return but as he said it, he knew that it was true. Harry would be back eventually. He was sure to hear about Snape and the Carrows, and once he was done doing…whatever it was he was doing, he was certain he'd come back. He'd come back with Ron and Hermione to help rid them of these horrible people calling themselves professors.

She wrinkled her blonde eyebrows. "What if he doesn't?" she asked.

Neville shrugged. "Oh, he will but…no matter what happens I'm not going to stop fighting," he told her. He could feel anger pulsing through his veins as he continued to paint the walls with blood red paint. "I'm not going to sit by and let Snape and the Carrows do this to people. I can't do much about You-Know-Who at the moment but, the Carrows are HERE, affecting my life every day, affecting your life and…I'm not going to let them hurt you," he added.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught her smiling. "Spoken like a true Gryffindor," she said with a grin.

Neville paused and contemplated her words. Up until this point, he'd never given his sorting a great deal of thought—the only time it ever crossed his mind was when people accused him of not being a true Gryffindor, but those were usually only the Slytherins so he never let it bother him much. He'd just always considered himself lucky that he'd gotten into such a good house, yet a bit unlucky in the fact that he wasn't in Hufflepuff, with Hannah. It wasn't until she said that, and his cheeks began to turn pink yet again, that he really thought about it. Wow. After all this time…it seemed he WAS a true Gryffindor. Here he was, ready to risk his life for other students, for Hannah…wow. It was almost overwhelming for him. How could he, Neville Longbottom, go from a shy little first year to…rebellion leader? The most outstanding part of it was that it was all coming naturally to him. He didn't have to even think—he just knew he was doing what was right.

"And I appreciate your declaration to keep me safe, that's very gallant of you," she teased him with a grin, and even though she was joking with him, he knew she was serious as well. He grinned and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah well…like I said. I'll protect you. You know I will," he told her seriously. She smiled and nodded before reaching over and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Ginny, Luna and Seamus were too involved in their spray painting to notice them, but Neville didn't care. He didn't care if the whole fucking world knew he cared for Hannah, and she cared for him. He was overcome with a desire to snog her right there, but they had more important things to worry about right now, like sending this message to the Carrows.

Suddenly, a very emotional thought crept into his brain. Was this how his parents had felt when they joined the Order of the Phoenix so many years ago? He had never given much thought to the fact that Frank and Alice Longbottom had felt this same intense urge to protect himself, and his Gran, and everyone else they cared for as they took a stand against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Had his mother bent over his crib, making the same vow he'd just made Hannah, swearing to protect him in the face of Death Eaters? He felt a lump rise up in his throat and he looked away as Hannah continued to finish their paint job, dabbing his eyes on his sweater before she realized what he was doing. He still needed to tell her. He would tell her, he wouldn't be ashamed to tell her…but now was not the time.

"There! All done!" Hannah exclaimed in excitement as she stood back to admire their handiwork. The letters could have been a bit straighter, and there were a few drip marks in certain places that reminded him eerily of the message scrawled on the wall in their second year about the Chamber of Secrets. Still, it looked good, and the message was clear as day—"Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting."

Seamus, Ginny and Luna walked over and looked at their message, and Neville noticed that they'd put up an identical message a few classrooms down.

"That…is going to scare the SHIT out of the Carrows," Seamus said with a chuckle. Ginny, Luna, Neville and Hannah all chuckled as well before a loud creak somewhere down the hall made them all jump.

Neville bit his lip nervously and looked at everyone in the area. "Come on, we should probably get going, we're pushing our luck being out without the Disillusionment charms as it is…"

He was cut off, however, when something silvery white came floating out of a nearby classroom. They all jumped again and Hannah let out a little yelp, and for a second Neville feared that Peeves had caught them. He let out a sigh of relief, however, when he saw it was Nearly Headless Nick.

"Oh! Mister Longbottom…Miss Weasley…Mister Finnigan…what are you all doing out of bed at this hour?" he asked, eyeing them suspiciously before his eyes finally fell upon the painted message on the wall.

They all remained silent. Neville was SURE Nick wouldn't go tell on them, but he wasn't sure he'd approve of what they were doing either. Nick surveyed the message before shaking his head, which quivered dangerously on his severed neck.

"While I am delighted to see some sort of resistance against those HORRID people, I do hope you realize the ramifications of being caught out of bed at this hour…both for you AND Gryffindor house," he warned them, eyeing them thoughtfully. They all nodded.

"Don't worry Nick. We understand but…someone's got to do something, why not the brave students of Gryffindor?" Neville asked with a grin. He saw the ghost chuckle ever so slightly before warning them once more to be careful as he floated off eerily into the night.

"Right. Luna, do you want me to walk you back to the Ravenclaw common room?" Seamus asked. Luna smiled and nodded.

"That would be lovely Seamus, thank you."

Ginny decided to go with Seamus and Luna, and Neville clasped Hannah's hand softly as he began to take her to the Hufflepuff common room. They had to stop a couple of times because they were afraid they heard someone lurking the halls, but luck seemed to be on their side—it was a false alarm every time, and they didn't run into Filtch or the Carrows once on their journey to the basement.

"Be careful on the way back upstairs, ok?" Hannah asked him with a smile as they approached the entrance to their common room. They paused and faced each other, and she reached forward and brushed a lock of hair out of his face. Neville's breath caught in his throat, and she stood on her tip toes to plant one small, delicate kiss on his lips. Neville wished he could have kissed her longer, but he was already playing with fire being this far away from the Gryffindor common room.

As he watched her enter her common room, giving him a small wave goodbye as she retreated, he wished that they weren't in this situation right now. He'd give anything to be living in a world right now where the Carrows didn't exist. What had happened to the days when the biggest concern the students of Hogwarts had been getting caught snogging behind a tapestry? He missed the simpler times. Yeah, he'd been short and pudgy and picked on, but he'd still had Hannah. He'd had Dean, Harry, Ron and Hermione there too. Why had things turned out like this? It was exhausting, living in this world. It was infuriating too, thinking that his parents had sacrificed themselves so that he DIDN'T have to deal with all of this, and yet here he was…still fighting their battle.

As he cast the Disillusionment charm and headed back up to the Gryffindor common room, he thought about what Harry might be doing out there. A lot of people were saying he had fled the country, and that he was hiding somewhere, but Neville knew Harry so much better than that. They'd never been ridiculously close, but he knew that Harry wasn't one to just hide and let others fight for him. Whatever he was doing, it was important and it had SOMETHING to do with bringing down Voldemort. If he wasn't here to fight the battle at Hogwarts, Neville was going to do it, because he was NOT going to let his children continue his battle.

He was doing this for future generations. He was doing this for the students of Hogwarts who had just started this year, full of excitement at the prospect of FINALLY being at school, only to arrive at this hellhole.

He was doing this for everyone, but most importantly, he was doing this for Hannah. Because other than his gran, she was the only person in this world that he really, truly, genuinely loved, and he was not going to let anyone else hurt her if he could help it, just like he'd promised her.


	17. A Reality Check

It wasn't until the weather became colder, and the school year was nearly halfway done, when the severity of the Carrow situation became crystal clear to Neville.

Up until that point, Dumbledore's Army had been a thorn in Snape and the Carrows side. The messages on the wall had definitely startled them, and as the group became more confident, a few of the members began to mouth off to the Carrows. At first, no one really got much more than a few cuts or scrapes, but one day in class, Neville got a reality check.

Alecto had been on a rant about muggleborns again, talking about how stupid and idiotic they were, when she took it too far. She was pacing the front of the room, twisting her wand viciously in her hands as she looked out at her students.

"The worst thing a muggle can do to us, even WORSE than stealing our wands and using our magic…is tainting our blood with theirs," she growled, a flicker of amusement flashing in her dark eyes as she looked at the horrified looks on the students faces.

"Half-bloods may be the worst abomination in the entire wizarding world," she declared, turning her back to the class and waving her wand so that her poisonous words copied themselves onto the blackboard. Neville could feel his blood boiling, and he looked over at Hannah, who sat a few rows in front of him. Even though she was attempting to keep up a composed façade, he could tell it was killing her inside to hear this.

"Half-bloods are assuring that muggle blood continues to infect the pure blood of our race, and eventually they can taint even the purest of wizarding families," she told the class. Neville clenched his fists and tried to find something in the room to distract him. He searched the floor and spotted a small spider crawling along the crack next to his table, but that wasn't enough to block out her words.

"Once muggleborns are taken care of, our focus should immediately turn to the half-bloods. We absolutely CANNOT allow them to pollute our race like this," she said, smiling even though she was clearly insulting nearly half the classroom with her every word. "Half-bloods are, without a doubt, some of the most despicable people in our world, because they openly steal our magic and believe they can get away with it, because their ancestors think they were clever enough to trick a wizard into breeding with them…"

Neville couldn't take it anymore. Not only did her words not make any sense whatsoever, but she was talking about HANNAH. HIS Hannah. Hannah was the most caring, thoughtful, perfect human being he'd ever known and he was not going to sit here and let Alecto talk about her like this. He jumped from his seat and stared down the professor.

"Despicable, you say? Well, then, how much muggle blood have you and your brother got?" he asked her.

She moved faster than he'd ever anticipated her to. She turned and her wand slashed through the air, and the next thing he knew, his cheek had split open. He heard a few of the girls shriek and people gasped as he reached up and grabbed his injured face. He could feel hot blood on his hand, and the stinging he felt in the gash indicated that it was very deep.

"How DARE you!" she screamed, her mouth gaping as she tried to figure out what else she could say to him. After a moment she composed herself and seemed to think the cut on his face was punishment enough, but to make sure he wouldn't insult her again, she waved her wand, and he felt his voice extinguish in his throat. He was forced to remain silent for the rest of the lesson and, as the bell rang, he felt his heart pounding in his ears as she motioned for him to come to the front of the room.

She didn't look angry anymore, but that made her all the more sinister in his eyes. She smirked at him and waited until the classroom had cleared before she grinned at him in amusement.

"If you ever speak to me that way again…you'll get much worse than a cut on your face, you understand me?" she muttered. Neville glared at her, although he had to admit that his heart was pounding hard against his chest. She waved her wand and lifted the Silencing charm before stomping from the room.

* * *

"Neville, how could you do that?" Hannah exclaimed at him. They were sitting in the Room of Requirement, seated on the floor as she moved her wand over the cut on his face. She'd gotten the bleeding to stop, but it was still rather deep and there wasn't much more she could do to heal it completely.

"You heard what she was saying about half-bloods! About…about YOU…"

"Neville you don't have to defend my honor if it means she's going to cut your face open!" she yelled at him. She threw her wand on the floor and stood up, wiping her face as a few tears began to fall down her face. Neville hadn't realized how much of an effect his resistance to Alecto had had, and now he felt horrible. He'd made Hannah worry, which wasn't what he wanted to do at all.

"I'm sorry," he told her, getting to his feet and pulling her into his arms. She buried her face in his sweater and wrapped her arms around him, trying desperately to hide her face from him. He rubbed her back until she calmed down, and finally she pulled away, still avoiding eye contact with him as she cleaned the mascara marks off her cheeks.

"It's alright it's just…watching you get hurt like that, I just…I couldn't take it. It hurt too much," she muttered softly. Without another word he pulled her into his arms again, ignoring the stinging on his cheek as a few tears escaped his eyes as well. As much as Neville wanted to tell her he would be more careful, he knew he couldn't. He wasn't going to sit there and let them talk like that, but there was more to it than just defending Hannah's honor.

After his outburst in class, he'd heard not one, but TWO people shout "Dumbledore's Army!" in the halls between classes. When he'd gone to dinner with Seamus, his friend had shown him the message to Alecto he'd hidden in invisible ink on the back of his essay, which essentially told Alecto and her brother to go to hell (amongst other vulgar insults). It was like he'd rekindled a fire, and now members of the DA wanted to stand up to Carrow just like he had, regardless of the consequences. By standing up to her, he'd given everyone hope. That was what was going to bring them down in the future…the more they fought, and the more they stood up, the less the Carrows would be able to do.

After Hannah calmed down and they worked on some homework for a while, Neville walked her back to her common room. Her mood had considerably brightened after joking around over Transfiguration homework for an hour, so he was in a reasonably good mood as he was walking back to the Gryffindor common room. He was intercepted on the third floor, however, by Professor McGonagall, and he could immediately tell that she did not come bearing good news.

"Longbottom, there you are…I'm afraid the Carrows are looking for you," she told him bitterly. Neville felt his breath catch in his throat. "They wish to meet with you in Alecto's office."

"M—Me?" he asked nervously. She nodded slowly.

"Yes, you, Longbottom. I wish I could go in on the meeting with you, especially considering your outburst in Alecto's class earlier this morning," she said, and even though he could tell she was scolding him, that didn't stop her from smiling at him for standing up to her.

"I'll be fine professor," he told her, even though he had no idea what awaited him behind the doors of Alecto's office. Even though his Head of House was still clearly worried about him, she nodded and gave him a pat on the shoulder before heading off. He took a deep breath and started down to the hall and a few moments later, he'd made his way through the corridors to her office and knocked. He heard the two voices inside stop immediately, and Alecto opened the door a moment later and ushered him inside.

He wasn't invited to take a seat, which didn't surprise him, so he just sat down in the chair across from her desk and sat up straight. Even though the wound on his face still hurt like hell, he wasn't about to let either of them know that. Amycus examined him as he sat down behind the desk, folding his hands on top of the desk in front of him.

Alecto cast a quick charm on the office before they began. Neville tensed up in the chair a bit—he was certain it was an Impenetrable charm, and wondered why they'd want their conversation to be completely silenced to the outside world.

"Listen Longbottom…we're not idiots," Amycus told him. Neville immediately wanted to say that was news to him, but stopped himself. The last thing he needed was another injury for Hannah to fuss over.

"We know you're up to something. It's not just you…it's not hard to pick out the members of 'Dumbledore's Army'," Alecto added, looking quite pleased with herself as she spoke. It was obvious she was proud of the fact that she was able to figure out who was spray painting the walls at night.

"But it's obvious you're the ring leader in all of this, so we're going to cut right to the chase…where is Harry Potter?" Amycus asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wand. Neville gulped. He hadn't expected to get questioned about Harry, but he could see why they thought he was in contact with him. It would make sense, right? Pssh. He WISHED he was in contact with Harry.

"I dunno. On the run somewhere," he replied, shifting in his chair as Alecto rolled her eyes.

"Enough of the lies, Longbottom, we know you have to have some idea where he is!" she exclaimed. Neville shook his head and straightened in his chair again.

"I have no idea where he is! Trust me, if I did I'd be with him, not in this hellhole you call a school," he replied angrily at her. Amycus raised his wand, and even though Neville's heart raced, he wasn't about to back down.

"We'll ask you one more time, boy—where is Harry Potter?" he asked. He was calmer than his sister, but every word he spoke still seemed to drip with poison.

"I told you, I have no id—"

He was cut off as Amycus waved his wand and Neville was hit with the Cruciatus curse. He let out a yell and fell from the chair as a thousand white hot knives dug into his skin…

Just like that, it was over. The curse had barely lasted more than five seconds, but Neville was still on the floor, panting as he slowly began to move, rising to his feet. Alecto was grinning in a way that eerily reminded him of Bellatrix Lestrange, and Amycus was already getting to his feet.

"That's just a taste of what you'll get if you don't cooperate next time, Longbottom," Amycus said, practically spitting as he spoke. He went to the door and held it open for him, and once Neville was to his feet and he managed to hobble out the door, he slammed it right behind him.

* * *

Neville didn't tell Hannah immediately what had happened in his meeting with the Carrows, but he couldn't keep it from her forever. He told her two weeks after it happened, and she was understandably upset and refused to talk to him for a good two hours. He'd kept his mouth shut since that incident, and had instead focused his efforts on the secret DA meetings. The cut hadn't closed up at all on his face, and he was sure Alecto had used a spell that was going to take quite some time to heal. He'd gone up to the hospital wing once, but there had actually been a small line of people and he didn't want to waste Madame Pomfrey's time with a small cut on his face…the other students were more important.

For the first time since they'd begun their secret DA meetings, Neville had begun to wonder if what they were doing was right. The Carrows were definitely nastier since he'd stood up to them, giving out ridiculously long homework assignments on a number of gruesome and horrifying subjects. They were keeping an annoyingly close watch on him too, and he was incredibly pleased to finally get home for the holidays.

"Are you going to keep doing it? Fighting?" Ginny asked. Neville nodded, his head pressed against the cool glass of the window of their train compartment. Hannah squeezed his hand before she rested her head on his shoulder. Seamus and Luna anxiously watched Neville as they waited for his answer, and Susan Bones seemed to be holding her breath as she waited for his reply.

"We have to. It's what Harry would want. I'm not going to rest until the Carrows are out of here," he muttered bitterly. He knew once the holidays were over, everyone would be more energized, and the Carrows would probably feel a tad safer, having had a few weeks off from having to deal with Longbottom and his little band of Potter supporters.

"You should really see someone about this," Hannah told him in concern, running her fingers lightly over the cut on his face. He winced, since the area was still tender, and nodded in agreement. He was so exhausted right now, all he wanted to do was take a nap…he just wanted to pull Hannah into his arms and cuddle with her, using that time as a small escape from the horrid reality they were currently facing.

Just as he thought that, the lights went out in their compartment. He wondered for a second if maybe he had fallen asleep, or if the entire conversation he'd just had had been a dream…but then the air felt particularly cold. It didn't feel like dementors had boarded the train, but more like someone had just opened all the windows and let the frigid air in.

"What's going on?" Seamus demanded. Neville could vaguely see the outline of his head frantically looking around the compartment, and no one answered him. Suddenly, Neville heard a few yells coming from the other compartments, and he knew immediately something wasn't right.

The door to their compartment opened, and he wasn't sure who had entered, but someone let out a shriek a second later.

"Stop! What are you doing? Let her go!" Ginny was yelling. He heard another yell, but this one was softer, and the sounds of a struggle rang through the small compartment. He recognized that yell, and his stomach dropped immediately. Neville got to his feet and began to blindly feel around, trying to grab whoever was attacking Luna in the darkness.

"_Lumos!"_ Susan muttered, and Neville had only a split second to curse himself for not thinking of that earlier before the scene in front of him registered in his brain.

Two masked Death Eaters were carrying Luna out of the compartment, and Luna was feebly attempting to throw them off of her but without any success. Seamus jumped to his feet and tried to grab the Death Eater nearest to him, but was promptly punched in the face and knocked back into his seat. Susan shrieked and a second later, Neville felt a blow connect with his face as well, even though he hadn't been struggling with either of them. He probably attacked him out of precaution.

Ginny attempted to curse them, but her Bat-Bogey Hex missed, which was the first time Neville remembered that happening since he'd known her. By the time Neville pulled his own wand out, it was too late.

The Death Eaters had moved into the corridor, where there was just enough room for them to Disapparate, taking Luna with them.

* * *

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I have to admit, the excitement of DH Part 2 has really pushed me to try and finish up this story before I head off to school at the end of the summer, so hopefully the updates will keep on coming! As I've said before, this story is like my baby-I've always dreamt of writing a huge Neville/Hannah story, basically retelling the story from his point of view while building the romance between the two of them. So there is plenty more to come still, and I hope you all stick with me to the very end! Thanks so much for all the reviews so far, they truly mean so much to me. Stay tuned! :)**


	18. Exhaustion

Neville felt horrible. One of his best friends had been kidnapped right in front of him, and he felt like a failure because he hadn't been able to stop them. What if HE was the reason they'd taken her? Like the Carrows said, it wasn't hard to figure out which students were involved in the DA…what if they'd figured out that she was helping him lead the underground rebellion group? What if they'd done that to try and scare them all, to get them to stop their efforts against them?

That was the least of Neville's worries, however. What were they doing to her? Was she being tortured? Where were they keeping her? Neville did his best to try and keep those thoughts out of his mind, but the worst thought of all seemed to plague him each and every minute—what if she was _dead?_

If something happened to her and it was somehow his fault…there was no way he'd be able to live with himself.

He moped around the house for the majority of Christmas break, and after the holidays, his gran had finally had enough of it one day and forced him to eat a bucket of homemade chicken soup, convinced that he had fallen ill. When he assured her that he wasn't sick, and just wanted to lie around and do nothing, she got even angrier.

"Well then what's the matter with you?" she demanded, slamming a kitchen rag down on the table when Neville refused to eat any more of the soup she'd made him. "No one just wants to lie around and do nothing for weeks, it's not natural!"

Neville just groaned and plopped down on the sofa, burying his head in a pillow. Gran promptly marched over and yanked it out of his arms before smacking him in the back of the head with it.

"Honestly Neville, you're seventeen years old, aren't you done with this angst ridden teenager business?" she asked him. Neville crossed his arms and sat up, glaring at her. If she wasn't going to let him mope in peace…well, fine. He'd tell her. He didn't WANT to, because he was quite certain she'd be so disappointed in him. Just when he thought he'd begun to make her proud…she was going to be disgusted once she knew that his friend had gotten kidnapped all because of his actions.

He took a deep breath and began to launch into his story about how Luna had gotten kidnapped on the train home before break. He didn't go into many details about his exploits involving the DA at school, but he did tell her that the Carrows were convinced he knew something about Harry's whereabouts and were going to do anything they could to try and get him to talk. He explained to her how he was certain Luna had gotten kidnapped in an effort to make him talk, and to his surprise, she let out a loud snort when he got to that part in his story. He blinked and stared at her, wrinkling his eyebrows.

"What?" he asked her angrily. There was nothing funny or fake about his story, why wasn't she taking this more seriously?

"Neville, you had nothing to do with that poor girl getting kidnapped! Haven't you been reading what her father was writing in that ludicrous magazine of his?" she asked him. Neville shook his head, and with an exhausted sigh, she stood up and went to the kitchen, reappearing a few minutes later with multiple issues of The Quibbler. Each one of them had a picture of Harry on the front, along with a dazzling headline that had something to do with the boy who was now considered Undesirable Number 1.

"They obviously kidnapped her to try and shut him up," she told him, and Neville realized that she had to be right. Even though Neville knew The Quibbler didn't have a very strong following, and Xenophillius' articles were probably only about 10% fact and mostly based on rumor, anyone who openly supported Harry like that was in danger. Anyone with a brain could have figured that out—it was why Neville had gotten so nervous when Hagrid mentioned a "Support Harry Potter" party.

"You, you think so? Do you think they'll…_kill her?" _he asked, saying the last two words in almost a whisper. She shook her head.

"No, old Xeno seems to have already retracted nearly all of his Harry Potter related articles and hasn't mentioned him in the latest issue…clearly, they got to him. It's a shame he buckled so quickly but, he can't be blamed, considering the circumstances," she said with a sigh. Neville frowned as he looked at the magazines in his hands as well, but it DID make him feel slightly better, knowing it wasn't his fault that Luna had gotten taken. All he could do now was hope that she was ok…Luna was strong, even though she came off as a bit airheaded to most people. She wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing, right? She'd be ok. She HAD to be ok.

His gran gave Neville a quick one armed hug before telling him that he needed to go shower because he looked like a slug after laying around like one for over two weeks.

* * *

Hannah wrote to him all during break, telling him about the lovely visits she was having with her family. She was still shaken up about Luna being kidnapped right under their noses like that, but Neville shared his grandmother's theory about Luna being kidnapped to keep Xeno quiet, and they both agreed that Luna was one tough girl and could withstand whatever they were putting her through. Since Xeno had cooperated so quickly, maybe she'd even be back in time for the start of school! It was a high hope, but they needed something to possibly look forward to…the start of school meant the return of Snape and the Carrows, which wasn't a pleasant thought at all.

Unfortunately, Luna wasn't on the train, and even worse, Ginny was starting to become visibly exhausted with their efforts against the Death Eaters. Neville couldn't blame her, since he himself was starting to feel like they were getting nowhere. He was beginning to have headaches on a daily basis, and the Carrows had figured out some sort of spell that prevented spray paint from sticking to the walls of the school. Filtch was obviously ecstatic abut that latest development, but for Neville and the rest of Dumbledore's Army, that was just one more thing that Carrows had taken away from them.

Neville still continued to resist them any way he could—he got detentions multiple times for refusing to do homework, or refusing to participate in class by demonstrating spells on people who'd gotten detention. Of course, that meant that HE became the test subject numerous times, and the Slytherins absolutely LOVED practicing the Cruciatus curse on him. Thankfully most of them were really rubbish at it, so the pain wasn't as bad as he knew it could have been. Neville wasn't the only one fighting either…Seamus, Parvati, Lavender and the rest of the Gryffindors were doing much of the same thing, as well as the other DA members in the other houses. Every time Neville took one for the team, the rest of them would follow in suit somehow, and that was one of the few things that kept him going.

However, in the midst of their continued efforts against the Carrows, Neville realized that something horrible was happening—he was drifting away from Hannah. He was so focused on trying to help everyone else that he was barely paying attention to his own needs anymore. He was exhausted all the time, and when he wasn't serving detention or trying to think of some way to get under Snape's skin, he was nursing wounds or trying to calm down a frazzled DA member who had just been tortured. Hannah was usually right there next to him, but they were always joined by other DA members, and they couldn't form a real romantic relationship over mending magical cuts and scrapes. She didn't seem to mind it—she was always willing to lend a helping hand, and even though he could tell she was just as tired as he was, she managed to keep a smile on her face most of the time. It didn't make Neville feel any less like a shit friend, though.

As time went on, it became more and more difficult to be positive and strong through the ordeal. Ginny was clearly losing steam and seemed increasingly stressed, so she wasn't much of a co-leader anymore. Neville was started to get worried as well because they hadn't heard any news on Harry's whereabouts via Potterwatch. The only thing they knew for certain was that he was alive—as Lupin had pointed out during one broadcast, if he'd been killed by the Death Eaters, they would have made it known throughout the entire country as quickly as possible. WHERE he was, exactly, remained a mystery, and Neville could tell it was taking a huge toll on Ginny.

The thing that really pushed him over the edge, however, came near the end of February. They were all gathered for their meeting in the Room of Requirement, waiting for the last few members to arrive as Neville began to think about what he was going to say. He was going to give them all another pep talk, but he was running out of positive things to point out during those talks_. The Carrows only tortured SEVEN of our members this week as opposed to NINE, isn't that great everyone?_ It was getting harder and harder to keep everyone's spirits up. Bloody hell, how had Harry been able to do this during their fifth year?

Suddenly, he heard a gasp and he turned to look at the door, only to be taken aback by what he saw. Michael Corner stumbled into the room, limping furiously and holding his forehead. When he moved his hand, Neville saw a giant gash on the top of his head, bleeding all down the side of his face. His robes had been ripped on his right side, and there was a gash as deep as the one on Neville's cheek on his forearm. Hannah and Parvati Patil rushed forward and helped him into a nearby chair, where Susan Bones and Lisa Turpin immediately set to work on mending his wounds.

"Michael, what…what happened?" Neville asked quietly. Michael shook his head and took a few deep breaths, and Nevile was afraid that he was going to be sick. A few moments later however he managed to find his words.

"They had…they had chained up this first year. In the dungeons. It was a little Ravenclaw boy, I'm not sure…not sure what he'd done to deserve it. I couldn't leave him there…couldn't leave him," he explained, pausing every now and then to wince as the girls tended to the cuts he'd sustained. "I'd just managed to get him free when they caught me."

Neville felt a lump rising in his throat and he turned away, unable to look at Michael anymore. Even though he hadn't told Michael to do that—he couldn't help but feel responsible. Here he was, causing all this mayhem and encouraging others to do the same…it practically WAS his fault. Michael was lucky he wasn't killed.

"Someone take Michael to the hospital wing," Neville said, turning to the group again. "And everyone else…go back to your dorms."

They all looked at him in confusion. He clenched his fists and tried not to get angry, he didn't want to yell at anyone…

"You heard me. GO. Meeting is cancelled," he grumbled. He turned his back to the room again and after a few minutes, he heard people begin to leave. After a few moments the room fell silent, but he knew it wasn't empty. He knew she was there. He'd expected her to stay, that was just in her nature…and yet, for the first time ever, he wasn't sure if he wanted her there.

"Neville, what's wrong?" Hannah asked quietly. She walked up behind him and lightly put her hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off.

"I just…we can't do this anymore," he said quietly, still refusing to look at her. He could hear the confusion in her voice when she spoke again.

"Can't do…?"

He cut her off.

"We can't do this. I can't ASK people to do this anymore, Hannah. We're being fools, bloody fools! What the hell do we, a small handful of teenagers, think we're going to accomplish taking on Snape and two powerful Death Eaters?" he exclaimed. He wandered over to a nearby bookcase that once housed books on defense spells and angrily kicked the side of it.

"You didn't ASK anyone to do any of this, Neville!" Hannah exclaimed. She angrily put her hands on her hips and stared him down.

"But I'm the one egging everyone on, aren't I?" Neville demanded, turning to face her. "We're not making any REAL progress, they're just getting worse, we haven't heard a bloody thing from Harry and it doesn't look like he's coming any time soon, there's no point to it anymore Hannah! It's only a matter of time before someone gets killed and for all we know, we might have already gotten Luna killed! I won't let that happen, I simply WON'T…"

His voice trailed off, and it seemed like all of his anger was extinguished at once. He leaned against the wall and slowly sunk to the floor, exhausted, and after a few moments, his eyes began to well up with tears.

Hannah wordlessly walked over and sat down next to him, putting an arm around him and pulling him close to her. He buried his face in her shoulder and tried not to cry—he hadn't cried since his third year and he was not a fan of it, especially when it occurred in front of Hannah—but he couldn't stop it. All of his frustrations and anxiety had crept to the surface, and it was all coming out in once. He composed himself after a few minutes but continued to lie there on her shoulder, his face buried in the soft fabric of her jumper as she hugged him close. Neville sighed after a while and just lay there as she stroked the back of his neck, until he felt her move towards his ear, and her hot breath tickled as she spoke.

"You're so amazing, Neville," she whispered in his ear. He pulled away from her shoulder and she cupped his face in her hands, lightly rubbing her thumb over his rough cheeks. "You've done so much for us, I don't even know…I don't even know if you realize…"

Now it was_ her_ eyes that were starting to tear up. "You've given us SO much hope, Neville! You have no idea how hopeless we all felt when we found out Harry was leaving but…restarting these DA meetings, working on our defense some more, standing up to the Carrows…it's not much, but it's something, and even though there's rough patches, I feel like I've actually _done_ something about You-Know-Who, and I've never felt that before! It's all because of you, and you…you HAVE to stay strong Neville, you have to, otherwise…we wouldn't be anywhere without you," she told him.

Her voice wasn't shaking, but a few tears had dripped onto her cheeks and she quickly brushed them off. After a moment or two she had composed herself and she sat up straighter, and when she looked at him again Neville felt his heart jump, only because she looked so threatening and bossy she completely resembled a blonde Hermione Granger at that moment—especially when she spoke again.

"So don't you DARE go saying you can't do this anymore," she told him, putting her hands on her hips. "We're going to keep fighting, and you're going to keep leading…I know you will. Besides," she paused and smiled slightly, pushing some blonde hair behind her ear. "You said you were going to protect me, remember?" she told him.

He looked at her and felt himself chuckle and smile slightly as well. "Yeah. I did say that didn't I?" he said quietly. She grinned and nodded before chuckling along with him.

"And I'm holding you to that, Longbottom. I'm trying my best but at the end of the day your spells are still stronger than mine," she added with a small wink. They chuckled for a few more minutes before he pulled her in for a hug.

"Thank you Hannah. You've always believed in me," he said quietly as he held her close. She giggled and pulled out of the hug, instead pressing her forehead against his and moving in so that their noses were touching.

"You're welcome," she said with a final chuckle before putting her arm around the back of his neck once more. Suddenly, Neville realized that she was moving in for a kiss, and even though there had been several pecks in the past few months, before her lips even touched his, he had a feeling this kiss would be different.

Sure enough, once their lips found each other, he felt a wave of lust engulf his chest, and he pulled her close to him, devouring her mouth as if it were oxygen. She let out a little gasp of surprise but a few seconds later, she was kissing him back just as fiercely. He didn't have much experience in the kissing field, and that experience had NOT included tongue, but he was able to follow Hannah's lead with ease. She put her hands on the side of his face and opened her mouth, allowing him room to softly run his tongue against hers.

He wrapped his arm around her tiny body and slowly shifted so that they were lying down on the stone floor—which, Neville discovered, was no longer stone. It was some sort of cushion instead, which meant that the room had clearly recognized the need for some softer support for the couple. Her hands were in his hair now, pulling him even closer to her, if that was possible. His hands were running down the side of body, making their way to her breasts. He paused, but then remembered that she likely wouldn't mind at this point if he lightly grazed them over her shirt. She giggled against his lips as he slowly moved his hand over her chest and pulled her lips away from his, much to his dismay. She began to kiss along his jaw and up towards his ear as she softly grabbed his hand and guided it to the hem of her shirt, promptly sliding it under the wool fabric for him as he pushed the undershirt up with it, softly running his hand along her smooth skin. Hannah thrust her pelvis into his, causing him to moan as she bit his ear, his brain trying to focus purely on the amazing sensation she'd just caused in the growing bulge in his trousers…

"Blimey, is that what you do after every meeting?"

Hannah screamed and Neville immediately jumped up, pulling her into his lap to conceal his excitement from their unwanted visitor.

"Seamus!" Neville exclaimed. "What the bloody hell are you doing?" he demanded. Seamus was grinning from ear to ear and could barely stop laughing—he was clearly thrilled that he'd just walked in on them in such a moment of passion.

"I take it your crush on Hermione is completely gone then…"

A large, maroon pillow, much like the one in Neville's dorm, appeared next to him out of thin air, courtesy of the room, and he immediately grabbed it and chucked it at Seamus.

"GO!"

"Calm down! I'm only here to get me jumper…I left it over there," Seamus explained, pointing to a small cluster of chairs that had been situated near the front of the room. Sure enough, Seamus' jumper lay over the top of the chair. Neville glared angrily at him as he walked along and picked it up, watching them carefully with each step, ready to duck if another pillow came his way.

Hannah nervously looked back and forth between Neville and Seamus, clearly unsure of what to say. After a few seconds of biting her lip in thought, as her face steadily became the same color as a tomato, she cleared her throat and looked at Seamus.

"So, um, is Michael going to be ok?" she asked him. Seamus blinked for a few seconds and then chuckled.

"Yeah, he's gonna be fine. Madam Pomfrey fixed him up quite a bit before we even left, and said he should be out within a week or so," he informed them.

As happy as Neville was that Michael was going to be making a rather speedy recovery, he was still irritated at Seamus for just barging in like that. Why hadn't he thought to make the room more private once things had started to heat up? Oh well, too late now. He reached over and softly intertwined his fingers with Hannah's.

"I'm going to walk Hannah back to her common room," he told Seamus. Hannah looked relieved to finally be leaving this awkward encounter, and Seamus was grinning once more.

"Yeah? Don't take any detours!" he warned them as they exited the room. "I hear the Carrows are extra cruel to students they find snogging behind the tapestries!"

To his surprise, Hannah actually giggled at that one as the left, but that didn't stop Neville from flipping Seamus off as they walked out of the room.


	19. Time to Hide

One small moment of hesitation on their end was all it took.

Neville couldn't ask people to go through what Michael had endured, so he kept his mouth shut for a week or so. More than a few of the DA members were a bit hesitant to do anything as well, especially when they found out that Michael had not only suffered large amounts of blood loss, but he had also walked away with two broken fingers and a cracked rib. A week of them staying quiet was all it took for the Carrows to get even nastier.

Members of the DA were getting detention on a weekly basis. Neville had earned himself reoccurring Friday night detentions at this point, and he was sure that he wasn't exactly a sight for sore eyes anymore. He had numerous cuts on his face, a giant gash on his right hand that refused to close up, and he didn't own a single article of clothing anymore that HADN'T been magically stitched up or repaired after a particularly brutal detention session.

Still, while a few of the less outspoken DA members decided to take a break from sneaking out to the meetings, Neville somehow found it in himself to keep fighting. He wasn't sure what it was—but he would bet any amount of money that it had something to do with the increasing number of snogging sessions with Hannah in the Room of Requirement. They'd sneak off on their own during their free periods and just spend hours making out (which, Hannah assured Neville, he was getting VERY good at) or just talking and lounging around with each other. Since he wasn't doing any homework for Defense or Muggle Studies, why not use that time to get some extra snogging practice in?

The lack of support was a bit taxing at times, especially since Ginny left after Easter. In fact, the number of students in the halls seemed to be dwindling, which Neville took to mean that more and more people were going into hiding. Reckless as it was, Neville went back to mouthing off in class, even if he didn't have as many people following in suit. He wanted the Carrows to know that even though there punishments might have scared off some people, he wasn't going ANYWHERE.

One particularly horrible afternoon, Amycus announced to the class that they'd, once again, be practicing the Cruciatus curse on live test subjects. However, Neville could tell that he had a particularly nasty gleam in his eye when he announced that they weren't going to be testing it on student who'd gotten detention—they'd be doing it on their own classmates.

"Partner up!" he exclaimed, and a few Slytherins immediately grabbed the closest students from the other three houses to use as dummies as the rest of the class remained in their seats.

"Partner up, before I do it FOR you," Amycus growled. Out of the corner of his eye, Neville spotted Susan Bones attempting to escape the surprisingly strong grip of Pansy Parkinson, and Goyle had Terry Boot in a headlock to prevent him from escaping.

"Alright, since you're all going to be difficult," he said, rolling his eyes and scanning the room. "Finnigan, you partner up with Macmillan over there. Miss Brown, you and Miss Patil—no, the other one—can get together and…"

His eyes dangerously lingered on Neville before he smirked and crossed his arms, staring Neville down as he prepared to announce what he clearly thought was his best punishment to date.

"Longbottom, how about you and Miss Abbott partner up?" he said with an evil grin. Neville felt his fists clench and his jaw tighten as he glared at the joke of a professor standing in front of him. He thought he was so clever, didn't he? Forcing him to partner up with his girlfriend. Well, not really his girlfriend YET, they'd never established for sure but…that was beside the point. Amycus knew EXACTLY what he was doing and he was damn proud of himself.

"No," Neville told him flatly. He stood up and heard a few students let out low gasps as he stared the Death Eater down in front of him. Hannah grew tense next to him, her eyes locked on the pair of men.

"Excuse me?" Amycus growled.

"No, I'm not going to do it. You're barking if you think I'd ever perform the Cruciatus curse on her. On ANYONE," Neville replied, his hand moving ever so slightly towards his wand, which lay on the desk next to him.

"Once again, Mister Longbottom is being exceedingly DIFFICULT," Amycus said with an eye roll as he addressed the class, causing a few of the Slytherins to chuckle.

"This is your last chance, Longbottom, you'll shut your mouth and participate in class like everyone else or the consequences will be severe!" he snapped. Neville grabbed his wand and held it in his fist, staring him down, refusing to move. He hadn't given in to their threats once, why did they think he was going to start listening now?

"Didn't you hear me the first time? I said NO!" Neville yelled. Amycus turned on his heel and pointed to Crabbe, who immediately came forward to the professor's aid.

"Crabbe! Show Longbottom here what'll happen to his stupid girlfriend if he ever…"

"STUPEFY!"

Neville shot a Stunning Spell right at Crabbe, causing him to topple over into a few of his housemates. Hannah shrieked and before Neville realized what was happening, Amycus had raised his wand and threw him into a nearby desk. The wind was knocked out of him and he crumpled to the floor, coughing and trying to catch his breath. He didn't have a chance, however, as Amycus promptly cast a very strong, and very painful, Cruciatus curse on him a moment later.

Hannah was sobbing and ran to his side as he lay there panting after the curse was lifted. For a second Amycus looked like he was going to send a spell to knock her off of him, but lowered his wand. He angrily looked around for someone else to yell at and ended up blasting a hole in Neville's desk instead.

"Class dismissed!" he exclaimed. Everyone hurried from the room, except for Hannah, who was helping Neville to his feet, even though his limbs couldn't seem to stop shaking. He walked up to him and dangerous wagged a finger in his face.

"You just wait Longbottom. Soon…VERY soon…you're going to wish you'd never been born," he growled at him before storming from the room and slamming the classroom door with a loud BANG.

* * *

Hannah had fussed over him for the rest of the day, but by dinnertime Neville had his strength back. His only concern was making sure that she wasn't shaken up by the incident, but the only thing she seemed to be concerned with was his health. Once she was satisfied that he was, in fact, ok, she loosened up a bit and they were able to enjoy the rest of their meal in peace.

Just as they got to dessert, Neville began to think about something that he'd happen to think of earlier. Was Hannah his girlfriend yet? He wasn't exactly sure how the whole boyfriend girlfriend thing worked—the closest he'd ever come to having a girlfriend was Luna, but they'd never gone on more than one date. Did he have to ask her? Or were just dating now because they snogged all the time? He didn't think it was the latter one there…you had to ASK officially, right? Almost like a proposal?

As he mulled it over and Hannah happily chatted with Seamus about their upcoming potions exam, Neville heard someone approach him.

"Good evening Mister Longbottom, Mister Finnigan…Miss Abbott," McGonagall said, greeting the three of them after she cast a puzzled look at Hannah, no doubt wondering why a Hufflepuff was eating dinner at her table. "Mister Longbottom, I need to speak to you in my office immediately," she told him. Neville felt his stomach sink a bit, but it didn't seem like he had anything to worry about…she didn't seem too bothered. She just looked serious, like she always did.

He wordlessly followed her up to her office on the first floor, where she invited him to take a seat and have a gingersnap. He took one to be polite and ate it in a few small bites. She was waiting for something, for some reason, and once he finished eating she finally began to speak.

"I'm afraid I have some good and bad news, Longbottom," she said. With a small pause, she jumped right into the bad news.

"I'm afraid that today, the Death Eaters sent a few Aurors to your grandmother's house in an attempt to abduct her," she said, plain and to the point. Now Neville understood why she'd waited to tell him until he'd finished his gingersnap—he would have choked had she told him while he was eating.

"Wait, what? Is she ok? Where is she? Is she hurt?" Neville demanded, standing up in panic. To his surprise, McGonagall didn't even move, but instead gestured for him to sit back down. In fact, she seemed to be smiling a bit.

"The good news, Mister Longbottom, is that your grandmother was quite capable of defending herself," she told him, her smile growing wider and wider as she spoke. "When the Order arrived on the seen Dawlish was completely unconscious on the floor and two other Death Eaters had already fled the scene," she explained.

Neville's mouth fell open in shock. HIS grandmother managed to ESCAPE? Hell, he could barely handle one Death Eater casting spells at him, and she managed to take down THREE? Maybe more?

"Don't look so surprised Neville, after growing up with Augusta I'm sure this isn't that much of a shock to you," McGonagall said with a small chuckle. Neville hardly heard McGonagall laugh, but he had to admit, she had a point—how surprising was this, REALLY?

"She sent you a letter, actually," McGonagall added, reaching into one of the drawers and handing it to him. He slowly opened the envelope as McGonagall stood up.

"I'll leave you to read it in private. Once you're ready to leave please close the door all the way behind you," she requested before straightening her hat and walking out of the office. He heard the door creak closed behind her and he pulled the letter out of its envelope.

_Dear Neville,_

_I'm not exactly sure WHAT you've been up to there at school, but whatever you're doing, keep at it. You've gotten them so riled up that they attempted to take me hostage last night, most likely in an attempt to keep you quiet. However, if you're anything like your father, which I know you are, going after me isn't going to stop you at all. I'm fine, by the way, I managed to escape without much of a fight and the Order has helped me find a safe place to stay for the time being The Death Eaters are getting worried, and I know you've got a smart head on your shoulders so I'm sure you've managed to figure out a way to push their buttons without getting yourself into TOO much trouble. Please try and be as careful as you can, and keep up the good work. You truly are your father's son, Neville. I'm proud of what you've accomplished, and I'm sure the fall of the Carrows is drawing near, all thanks to you._

_Best wishes,_

_Gran_

By the time Neville finished the letter, he realized he had begun to cry. He had only shed a few tears, but for some reason, sitting there, reading about how much confidence his grandmother had in him had brought them out. After all these years, it was just so…comforting to know that she truly believed in him. Sure, she'd gone to some drastic measures to try and bring out his abilities at an early age, but she'd only been trying to get him to reach his full potential. This was just…so heartwarming. And he KNEW she was safe out there, wherever she was…Augusta Longbottom wasn't going down without a long, drawn out fight. She seemed to have an even tougher skin than him!

Neville folded up the letter carefully and stuck it in his sweater, close to his chest. It had taken him years to get some sort of evidence that his gran had confidence in him, and he was NOT about to lose it anytime soon.

* * *

Neville was becoming increasingly popular with the professors, it seemed. Less than a week later, he was summoned once more to the office of one of his teachers, only this time, it was a far less pleasant request.

He was sitting in the common room, playing chess with Seamus during one of their rare moments of down time when he felt something burning in his pocket. He suddenly remembered that he had been carrying around the coin they used to communicate with the DA, even though they hadn't had a meeting since Neville had nearly been knocked unconscious in class for defending Hannah. Wrinkling his eyebrows, he paused to examine the coin and a moment later let out a yell of surprise.

"Seamus, it's a message from Luna!" he exclaimed in excitement. Seamus sat up and quickly hurried over to his side, peering over his shoulder at the coin.

"What's it say?" he demanded.

"She's fine," he said with a sigh of relief. "She says she's perfectly healthy and…she's seen Harry!"

"What?" Seamus exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah! That's what it says…not much else though, you can only say so much through these blasted coins…" Neville grumbled. Still, there was something to celebrate, even with the small amount of information they'd gotten. Luna was alive! She was healthy! She'd seen Harry, which meant Harry was alive! Things were suddenly looking a million times brighter in Neville's future.

At least, it was for a split second. A moment later, Neville's world came crashing down once more as Lavender Brown entered the common room, looking extremely nervous and anxious.

"Neville?" she said softly, walking up to the pair of them as they continued to marvel over the coin.

He looked up at her and wrinkled his eyebrows. "Hey Lavender…what's wrong?" he asked immediately, sensing the fear in her voice.

"It's the Carrows…they want to speak to you in Amycus' office as soon as possible," she said softly. He could tell just by looking at her that something horrible was about to happen. He'd visited the Carrows many times but…this felt different. He was dreading this visit with every step he took. He numbly nodded and glanced at Seamus, nodding at him to let him know he'd be alright, although he had a sinking suspicion he wouldn't be.

As he walked through the hall, his spirits lightened only when he saw Hannah hurrying towards him, obviously on her way to try and intercept him for dinner.

"Neville! There you are! Listen, I was eavesdropping on a conversation between Parvati and Susan earlier…did your Gran REALLY escape an entire army of Death Eaters?" she asked him.

Neville blinked. "Oh, erm…not a whole army but a…a few," he explained. He was distracted, trying to muster up fake happiness for Hannah while worrying about what the Carrows could possibly want with him. She immediately sensed his worries and examined him, her brown eyes practically piercing through his soul.

"Neville, what…what's wrong?" she demanded. A worried look was starting to form on her face as she looked up at him.

"It's nothing I just…nothing's wrong. Well, nothing yet," he explained.

Hannah blinked a few times in confusion.

"It's the Carrows," he told her. She nodded in understanding, even though he didn't give her any further details. She wordlessly wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a hug, burying her face in his sweater. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the soft, sweet scent of her raspberry perfume as he held her close.

"Hey, Hannah, before I go…can we clear something up really fast?" he asked her, his heart beginning to race. She wrinkled her eyebrows and pulled away from him, looking up at him in confusion.

"Sure, Nev…anything," she said with a shrug.

"Well, I just…I don't know how to really go about this…I mean, I can understand if we AREN'T, I really haven't been giving you the time you deserve because of all this Carrow nonsense, that really makes me a shit friend but…"

Hannah chuckled and shook her head. "Neville WHAT are you on about?" she asked with a laugh.

Neville blushed and snapped out of his worried state for a minute, chuckling at his own awkwardness as he spoke again. "It's just…I've never done this before and I just wanted to know…I mean we SNOG enough…well, do YOU think…are we boyfriend and girlfriend?" he asked, finally spitting out the words he'd been dying to ask for a few months now.

Hannah blinked for a moment or two and then giggled again. "Well, I dunno. Do you WANT to be boyfriend and girlfriend?" she asked.

"Well, yeah!" Neville explained. That was all he'd wanted for years now!

"Then I guess you have your answer," Hannah smirked at him before standing on her tiptoes and planting on kiss on his lips. Neville kissed her back, and suddenly he remembered where he had been headed before Hannah had sidetracked him. He didn't break the kiss immediately, and just like that Hannah seemed to sense his fear and pulled him close to her, wrapped her arms tight around him like she never wanted to let go.

After a few minutes Neville concluded that he didn't want to anger the Carrows any more than necessary by being late, and bid Hannah goodbye. She watched him go, and he wished that he could bring her with him, to give him that extra ounce of courage that he needed to get him through whatever was about to happen.

He arrived at Amycus' office and knocked, and he heard Alecto shout for him to come in. Already dreading this visit, he slowly opened the door and walked in, and he could tell that he had interrupted them during a very important discussion. Both of them looked extremely tense and he wondered what the hell they could have possibly been up to. He was sure to find out in the next minute or two.

"Sit," Amycus barked, pointing to the chair. Alecto looked extremely nervous, and Amycus was staring at Neville as though he were a piece of dragon manure.

"Have I done anything wrong?" Neville asked, immediately regretting this as soon as he spoke. Where to begin? Alecto snorted and Amycus clenched his wand in his fist, which Neville hadn't noticed was even out of its holster until just now.

"Don't be smart with me, boy," Amycus growled, and to Neville's surprise, Alecto put a hand on his shoulder.

"Amycus, please, keep calm," she said. Neville blinked. Since when did Alecto stand up for him? Amycus turned to his sister and glared at her, causing her to back away as he rose from his chair.

"Why? Why shouldn't we do it, Alecto?" he spat at her. His voice was a rough whisper, almost as if he didn't want Neville to hear him, even though he clearly could. His heart began to race. This was not good. Not good at all.

"Please, Amycus, it's not going to look good if we do it…let's just call the dementors, they'll set it right," she said in an even softer voice. Neville wasn't sure if they thought he was deaf or if they just didn't care that he could still hear them. Dementors? Oh no, they weren't going administer the kiss on him, were they?

He needed to leave. He needed to leave right now. The pieces were starting to place themselves in his mind. Alecto wanted him to go to the dementors. Did that mean the kiss? Or Azkaban? Either way, NOT good. Amycus, on the other hand, sounded much more sinister…oh god. Amycus wanted to kill him, didn't he? He wanted to kill him! That was why Alecto looked so scared…it wouldn't look good for them at all if they started killing purebloods…

Oh God, Hannah. This wasn't fair, he was going to die before he had a chance to tell her he loved her…he had promised to protect her, and he couldn't die! No one would look out for her then!

Neville barely made up his mind before he moved. Alecto and Amycus were still focused on bickering amongst themselves and didn't realize he'd bolted from his chair until he had reached the door.

"Oi! Stop!" Amycus yelled, and to Neville's horror, he saw a flash of green light whiz past his ear and hit the top of the doorframe. He flung it open and ran out into the corridor, taking off as fast as he could.

He could hear them charging after him and wished that everyone wasn't at dinner right now. If there had been students in the hall he was sure they would have stopped trying to KILL him…or at least been slowed by the crowds of students in the hall. Instead he was running as fast as his legs could carry him, through the deserted corridors, putting distance steadily between him and the siblings as he charged along. He wouldn't stop, he COULDN'T stop until his lungs gave out.

Suddenly, he realized where he was. This was his only chance, he wouldn't make it if he didn't take this opportunity.

_I need somewhere to hide from the Carrows. Someplace where they can't get in. I need some place to be safe._

A door to the Room of Requirement formed on the wall, and he quickly yanked it open as he heard the Carrows approaching down the hall. He slammed it shut, and the door instantly vanished, even though he could hear them outside in the corridor.

"What the hell? Where did he go?" Amycus shouted.

"Check the tapestries!" Alecto suggested, and a few moments later, they'd retreated away from the door. Neville was still panting, and he collapsed against the edge of the wall, sliding down to the floor as he tried to catch his breath.

There wasn't much in the small room. A flimsy hammock hung in one corner of the room, and a small dresser nearby was filled with a few different sweaters for Neville to change into if he fancied. There was a bookcase too, with some Herbology books and a few other knick-knacks to keep him occupied. He stood up and walked to the middle of the room, turning in a circle to take in his new surrounds. This was going to be it for a while, he realized. This was all he had. This was his home.

He walked over to the hammock, still a bit light headed from all the running, and pulled out his coin to send a quick message to everyone.

_Need to be out of sight for a bit. I'll be in the Room of Requirement if you need me. You know how to get in - Neville._


	20. It's Harry's Move

The Room of Requirement was, hands down, a much better place to spend your days than the dorms or in class with the Carrows.

The first day or so, Neville was still trying to wrap his brain over what had just happened. His teachers had tried to kill him. That was a bit of a shock, although in retrospect not all too surprising. He'd been a thorn in their side for months now. He also had little to no communication with the outside world. He only had the DA coin, and that could only send tiny messages at best. He'd let them know that he was hiding in the Room of Requirement, but that was pretty much it. A few people had replied, asking him what to do, but honestly—he was lost. Where did he go from here?

He couldn't leave the room without risking his life and possibly getting caught by the Carrows. He was positive they had extra security charms put in to place ever since he seemingly vanished before their eyes, so he was literally trapped. He was also getting extremely hungry.

After a day or so, he began to wish for some sort of food, but he knew he wasn't going to get anything. Gamps Laws of Elemental Transfiguration stood in his way. The room had a different idea, though. It created a doorway, and after venturing for what felt like hours, he found himself in the Hogs Head and gave the bartender a heart attack when he crawled out of the portrait in the wall. After that initial shock, Neville got to know the man a bit better and was extremely surprised to find out that the man was none other than Aberforth Dumbledore—the late headmaster's brother. Aberforth acted like he was annoyed that Neville was going to use him from then on out as his food source, but Neville could tell the old man felt important getting involved in something that had to do with the war effort, even if it was just smuggling war criminals food.

Now that he had food, Neville could pretty much do whatever he pleased in the Room of Requirement. About a week passed since the Carrow attack, and Neville had filled his time by reading textbooks that the room provided, chatting with Aberforth down at the Hogs Head on his meal breaks, practicing spells on dummies that the room conjured up—after a while, it started to get a bit lonely. He missed Hannah. What he wouldn't give to hold her in his arms, to cuddle with her, to protect her from the Carrows just as he was protecting himself…

Two weeks after the Carrows attacked him, Neville was taking a nice, well deserved nap after a long afternoon of dueling practice with a mannequin when he heard the door to the Room of Requirement open. Oh Merlin, no, the Carrows had found him! Shit! What did he do? Stumbling out of the hammock the room had provided as sleeping quarters, he fumbled for his wand in his robes, which lay haphazardly on a nearby bookcase, and turned to face his attacker. He let out a sigh of relief almost instantly, however, when he realized he wasn't being attacked—in fact, it was quite the opposite.

"Seamus! Bloody hell, how did you get in here?" he asked with a grin as he went to hug his friend.

"Those damn Carrows were threatening to cut off me arm in detention, and I just decided fuck it—I'm gonna go hang with Neville instead. This is brilliant, mate!" Seamus said, turning around and admiring all the cool stuff the room had conjured for him over the past two weeks.

"How are things out there? I haven't gotten any messages…" Neville said, pulling the coin out of his pocket. Seamus sighed and shook his head.

"Not good at all, mate. People are getting in trouble for anything nowadays. I kid you not, Ernie Macmillain got detention for breathing too loudly the other day. It's right shite out there," Seamus explained to him.

Neville's heart sank, and then he asked the question he had been dying to ask.

"How's Hannah doing?" he asked softly.

Seamus gave him a cheeky grin and punched him lightly in the arm. "Don't worry, she's just fine. Her boyfriend taught her how to look after herself, that's for sure," he informed him with a grin. Neville sighed with relief and chuckled. He knew Hannah could be sassy at times, he wished he could see the look on the Carrows face when the innocent little blonde Hufflepuff talked back to them.

"So…what do we do now?" Seamus asked as the room magically summoned another hammock next to Neville's. Seamus plopped down in it and started to swing back and forth, looking at him expectedly.

"Honestly mate, I dunno. I've been trying to think but, with the Carrows out there looking for my head on a platter, I don't know what we _can _do," Neville admitted with a sigh, taking a seat on his own hammock.

Seamus sat pondering for a few minutes before he finally spoke again. "Well, I guess it's up to Harry now, isn't it?"

Neville looked at him in confusion. "What?" he asked.

"We have to wait for Harry to make the next move. We know he's out there doing something for all of us, with Ron and Hermione too—we've done pretty much all we can do. The Carrows won this round. They haven't won it all though, they simply found a way to keep us quite until Harry comes barging in here, ready to fuck shit up," Seamus said with a grin.

Neville stared at him and suddenly realized that his friend was right. It had always been up to Harry to end all of this, they all knew it. It had always come down to Harry. Seamus was totally right—there wasn't much left to do now except wait for Harry to show up.

"Seamus, start some dueling practice or something, I've got to go talk to Ab," Neville said, standing up and grabbing his jumper from the nearby chair.

"What are you going to do?" Seamus asked, sitting up in his chair.

Neville walked over to the portrait and turned to face Seamus, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm going to tell Aberforth to look out for a very dear friend of ours," he said before turning on his heel and heading in to the passageway.

* * *

_Hello my loves! You guys have the patience of saints, seriously. I'm so sorry I'm rubbish at doing consistent updates, but I promise you, this story will NOT just die away. It's going to be completed, even if it takes me forever to do so! Sorry that there wasn't much Nev/Hannah action in here either but we've got to give Neville his time to shine and grow as well! Thanks so much for sticking with me, I hope to have a few more updates coming for you soon!_


	21. Reunited

The waiting was terrible.

More and more members started to show up, which was both a good and bad thing. Neville had definitely missed hanging out with his friends, but on the other hand, he missed his privacy. There weren't many areas where he could take a few minutes to think when everyone else was chattering around him about Harry and the DA and everything that was going on outside the Room of Requirement.

Towards the end of the school year, after weeks of sitting around, doing nothing more than playing games, gossiping and planning a million and one ways to take down the Carrows once Harry got back, Neville snapped. He was trying to figure out how they would get home and get to their families – and if it were even possible – once the summer holidays officially started, and if they'd be able to start attacking the Carrows from the privacy of their own homes. They couldn't stay in this place forever. However, it was very hard to brainstorm anything with Lavender yapping in the background about how she hadn't washed her hair in a week.

"Lavender, shut it!" he yelled, turning and yelling at his fellow Gryffindor in annoyance. She stopped speaking and looked at him in awe. No one had heard Neville raise his voice in months. He'd been trying to keep up hope, keeping everyone in high spirits for when Harry returned, that it took them all by surprise.

"I just think, with us girls being here…" she began softly.

"Look, do whatever you want. Ok? I don't OWN the room, you don't have to ask me to make changes to it, just fucking do it," he grumbled before turning back to his parchment. He angrily crossed out the most recent plan he'd come up with – riding thestrals out of Hogsmeade back into London – and he felt someone approach him and tap his shoulder.

"Mate, are you ok? Need some butterbeer? I can go get Abeforth…" it was Seamus, coming to see what was wrong. Neville realized he should be grateful, but he was more annoyed than anything.

"No, I'm fine, just make sure your little princess is well taken care of," he snapped. Seamus gently knocked him upside his head for that one, but Neville barely even flinched.

"What is WITH you, Nev? You've been this way for weeks now. You miss Hannah, don't you? I told you, we can go get her if you…"

"No, I'm fine!" Neville snapped again, crumpling up the paper and chucking it at the wall. The room instantly conjured up a wastebasket for it to bounce into.

Truth was, he wanted Hannah to come join him BADLY. He missed her so much it almost physically hurt him. But he didn't want to drag her out of school if he didn't have to. Besides, it was nice to know that she HADN'T come here yet – that meant that she was holding her own against those monsters. Hopefully that also meant that she was continuing to keep the remaining DA members' hopes alive. Finally, the Carrows weren't idiots, and he didn't want to risk them finding out where all their missing students had run off to. The more students that disappeared – well, the more they'd be motivated to find them, he reckoned.

"I'm sorry I'm so on edge, it's just…I can't stand the waiting! I feel like a sitting snitch," he said with a sigh as he sat up and rubbed his hands over his face.

"I know mate. Nothing we can do about that though, right? So let's try and…enjoy ourselves I suppose, yeah?" Seamus said, giving him a little nudge and a smile. Neville chuckled and grinned at his friend. Typical Seamus – trying to make a party out of everything.

"You're right. This is how it is in war, right?" Neville admitted. He stood up and brushed himself off before looking at Lavender, barely flinching at the fact that a bathroom had, in fact, materialized off the east end of the room.

"I'm sorry for snapping Lavender. A full bathroom is much better than a few stalls," he said, glancing over his shoulder at the two bathroom stalls the room had conjured for them, which vanished an instant later now that they didn't need to be used.

"It's ok. Wanna play some chess?" she asked with a grin. "After I shower, that is," she added with a giggle.

He shook his head. "No thanks, I think I'm going to take a nap," he said, suddenly realizing that he was exhausted from doodling on his parchment all morning. He walked over to his hammock in the corner and collapsed into it. It was amazing how comfortable it was – this room really worked wonders sometimes.

Within minutes, he had drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Neville was having a dream. A wonderful, perfect, amazing dream.

Hannah was there in the room with him. She was holding his cheek in her hand, rubbing the scar under his eye lovingly with her thumb. She looked absolutely perfect – her hair curled at the ends, her perfume hung in the air and her skin felt like silk against his cheek.

"Hannah, I missed you," he whispered. She didn't say anything, but kissed his forehead softly.

"Neville, wake up sleepyhead!" she said, although her mouth didn't move. In fact, it sounded like she was a million miles away. She pushed away the hair from his forehead and ran her fingers through it, smiling at him but still not speaking.

"I am awake," he mumbled. All he needed was a second or two and he'd sit up, pull her into his arms, and kiss her so hard they both saw stars. But he was so comfortable here in her embrace…

"Come on Nev, wake up!" she giggled, and once more, she sounded like she was in another universe. But no, she was here, this didn't seem right, why wasn't she talking?

"Neville!"

She started to fade away…

NEVILLE!

He jumped up with a start, hitting the person who was sleeping in the hammock above him. His forehead rammed right into Ernie's bum, and the Hufflepuff awoke with a loud gasp of surprise.

"Neville mate, what the hell?!"

"Sorry Ern, I…"

But Neville stopped when he realized that someone was sitting on the edge of his hammock. Someone who was laughing hysterically at the scene that had just played out in front of her. Neville was positive he was awake, the pain in his head assured him of that (damn Ernie had a bony arse) so this had to be real, it WASN'T a dream, it was really…

"Hannah…" he said breathlessly. She giggled and bit her lip before pushing his hair away from his forehead, just as she had in her dream.

"Well, good news for you is, I don't think Ernie's backside is going to leave a lasting impression on your head," she said with a wink. Ernie mumbled something in response to the insult above them, but had all but fallen back asleep as she chuckled. Neville smiled, but still wasn't able to fully believe what was happening.

"You're…but how?"

"The Carrows finally snapped," she explained with a shrug. "Threatened to kill my family, even though it was clear they were bluffing and had no idea where they'd gone into hiding. Can you believe it? MY family in hiding…regardless, it was time to disappear," she explained with a nod.

Neville nodded. "I'm so sorry about your family…" he whispered, cupping her face in his hands and he softly kissed her. He was dying to do more, a lot more, but he had to remind himself there were others in the room with them…

"It's fine…ever since my mum died, well, we've taken extra precautions. They'll be able to fend for themselves," she assured him. Neville could tell by the confidence in her voice that she wasn't worried, and that made him confident that the Abbott's would be just fine. He smiled and kissed her for real this time – kissing her long and hard, his tongue poking through her mouth as her fingers ran through his hair.

"I missed you," he said, feeling a lump rise in his throat. For once, he wasn't going to cry of sadness – these were happy tears. She smiled and pulled him into an embrace, hugging him like she was never going to let go.

"I missed you too, Neville. So, so much," she whispered into his ear. He could feel a tear falling down her cheek as it landed on his own stubbly face, and he squeezed her tighter. He was never letting go, never ever again.

That lasted all of five seconds.

"Umm, hi, I hate to break up the happy couple…" Lavender had appeared, biting her lip and looking extremely anxious. He pulled away and Hannah chuckled.

"It's fine Lavender, what's up?" she asked.

"Well, Neville, I think…something happened," she said. At first, Neville wasn't sure how to take that news…it sounded bad, until he realized she was smiling.

"What?" he asked, bolting up.

She turned and pointed to the portrait hanging on the opposite wall. In the wall, there was a young girl, smiling and waving at him. She looked excited, and Neville knew immediately what her appearance meant. That girl meant the world to Abeforth, and if he sent her, that meant only one thing.

"Hannah, I'll be right back, I've got to go do something!" he yelled in excitement. He turned, leaned down and gave her a long kiss goodbye, then turned and hurried through the portrait hole, making his way to greet a very important visitor.


End file.
